KATHMANDU, Nov 11: The Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) named Paras Khadka as the national captain for the ACC Twenty20 Elite Cup. All-rounder Paras, 23, will replace Binod Das to become eighth cricketer ever to lead the national team. [break]
“We decided to change the leadership since it´s a new format of the game,” chief selector Arun Aryal said. “Since Nepal´s performance is not very good, we hope that the leadership of the new captain may change things.”
According to Aryal, Paras is an all-rounder and that he would be able to assess all departments better.Nepal will take on Malaysia on November 22 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium -- the first match under Paras´ leadership. Nepal´s performance in last ACC Twenty20 was dismal and the UAE event in November will be test of Paras´ captaincy.
“For now, he is the captain for the ACC Twenty20 event,” Aryal said.
CAN also announced the 14-member squad for the event. The team includes Binod, Paresh Lohani (former national captains) and Binod Bhandari and Naresh Budhaaiyr (debuntants).
Others in the team are Mehboob Alam, Sanjam Regmi, Paresh Lohani, Dipendra Chaudhary, Gyanendra Malla, Sarad Vesawkar, Shakti Gauchan, Basanta Regmi, Amrit Bhattarai and Mahesh Chhetri.
Rahul Kumar BK, Ajay Rajbanshi and Chandar Sawad are named as alternatives.
The team will be managed by Naresh Kumar Shrestha, while Roy Luke Dias will be the coach. Manjur Alam Khan has been named Dias´ deputy.
Paras had captained Nepali youth teams twice -- U-17 in 2004 when Nepal played in the ACC U-17 in India and U-19 in 2007 when Nepal won the ACC U-19 Elite Cup in 2007 and finished plate runners-up in the Youth World Cup in Malaysia a year later.
Paras has played 30 international matches for senior team scoring 630 runs at an average of 30 and had taken 27 wickets at an average of 16.44.
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