Nary Thapa, the captain of the national women’s team, won the NSJF-LG Best Female Player of the Year 2064 as cricket also received two other awards in the nation’s top sports awards distribution ceremony in Kathmandu.
Nary (fourth from left) and Paras (right) with other winners of the NSJF LG Player of the Year Awards. Photo: NepalSportsPhoto.com
Paras Khadka, the U-19 captain, won the Youth Player of the Year award while former Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) president Jai Kumar Nath Shah was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in the function organized by Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF).
Deepak Bista of tawkwondo won the Best Male Player of the Year for his Olympics-qualifying feat while football’s Jumanu Rai was declared the winner of the Popular Player of the Year award. Sahara Club of Pokhara received Special Award for their contribution in football.
Nary, also a national badminton player was nominated along with Bibidha Rimal and Saila Rana of swimming, Jhanta Katuwal of weightlifting and cricket’s Nira Rajopadhyaya. Nary had led the national team to the final of the ACC Women’s Tournament. She took 12 wickets in five matches at an impressive economy rate of 1.26 and was the best bowler of the event.
She also received the Best Emerging Asian Women Cricketer of the Year awarded by the Asian Cricket Council.
U-19 captain Paras missed out on both the best male and popular categories. Paras led Nepal to victory in the ACC Elite Cup to qualify for the Youth World Cup for the fifth time in a row. He was man of the series in the ACC event. In the YWC, Nepal lost to West Indies in the Plate Championship final but Paras was in contention for the Player of the Tournament award until the last match.
Paras beat NPC goalie Ritesh Thapa, fellow cricketer Amrit Bhattarai, taekwondo player Anju Raut and golfer Shiva Ram Shrestha for the award.
Nary pocketed Rs 25,000 while Paras and Shah pursed Rs 15,000 along with LG mobile set and gift hampers.
Meanwhile, Shah declared that he would hand over the prize money he had received to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund for the Koshi flood victims.
“This award is a very special one to me,” the winner of ICC’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and an honorary member of Merylebone Cricket Club (MCC) said.