Paras Khadka won the Player of the Year (Male) award of the nation’s biggest Pulsar Sports Award 2066 for his performance during the World Cricket League Division 5 and ACC Trophy.
Paras Khadka won Player of the Year Male Award in Pulsar Sports Award.
Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) honored the national cricket captain with the award in a gala function held at Nepal Academy. During the program, woman cricketer Rubina Chhetri was award with the Magical Performance of the Year award and retired curator Komal Pandey with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Paras was nominated for the award along with karatekas Binod Shakya and Sunil Lama, long distance runner Rajendra Bhandari and wushu player Ang Babu Lama – all gold medalist during the South Asian Games 2011.
Paras led Nepal to the WCL Div 5 title defeating United States of America in February in Kathmandu. He scored 250 runs and grabbed a wicket during the event. He also inspired Nepal to the finals of ACC Trophy after eight years.
Rubina Chhetri won Magical Performance of the Year award.
Rubina was awarded with the Magical Performance Award of the Year for her feat of taking five wickets in the last over against Singapore and earning Nepal an unlikely draw.
Pandey was honoured with Lifetime Achievement award for his extraordinary sports career. He has dedicated his whole life in sports playing cricket, football and athletics. He retired as a CAN (Cricket Association of Nepal) curator of the TU Cricket Ground.
NSJF president Niranjan Rajbanshi and General-secretary Hemanta Raj Kafle honoring Komal Pandey with the Lifetime Achivement Award.
“This is the second biggest honor for me – the first being the honor of carrying the 1964 Olympics Torch in Kathmandu,” Pandey said dedicating his awards to half-a-dozen well known sports personalities of the country including cricketer Mehboob Alam. Also a retired economics university teacher, Pandey had the unique record of representing the nation in three different sports in international level in 1960s.
Rahul Kumar BK and Nischal Pandey were nominated for the Youth Player of the Year; Sharad Vesawkar for the Popular Player of the Year and Roy Dias for Coach of the Year but they were not named the winners.
All winners received Rs 25,000 each along with free installation of Dish Nepal DTH system, Samsung digital camera, Mountain flight ticket from Buddha Air, 100 Plus sports drinks gift hamper and export quality Nepali carpet. The nominees received Timex watches and 100 Plus gift hampers.
Other winners of the event include Ganga Adhikari of Karate (Player of the Year Female), Santosh Sahukhala of football (Popular Player of the Year), Binita Maharjan of Wushu (Youth Player of the Year), Deepak Thapa of Karate (Coach of the Year) and Debu Thapa of Judo (Bravery Award),