National Sports to kick off June 3rd

Purushottam Kattel

KATHMANDU, May 30 - The 5th National Sports is on the verge to kick off, from May 27 to June 01, 2001. Every person allied to the sports of Nepal are being full of activities for their groundwork to muddle through the carnival which will provide a chance to them to embody Nepal in the international horizon. The 5th national sport is being viewed as a raised area of the Nepali National Team for the upcoming 9th SAF. Nepal has a great challenge to maintain its position of the 8th SAF, in which, Nepal leapfrogs to second position.

National Sports went through several upheavals from the commencement in 1982. The actual period of the Championship had been scheduled in two years gap but only five are being carried out in the 20 years’ history. Due to the political instability and governments least priority, National sports suffered a snail pace maturity. The first, second and third National Sports were held in 1982, 1984 and 1986 respectively, all before the democracy, in which the participants were of 14 teams from the same number of zones. After anguishing 14 years of interruption, the 4th National Sports was organized and participated with great enthusiasms in the year 1999 at Mahendra Stadium, Nepalgunj.

There is a grand divergence between the three Championships prior to the democracy and after. In the three incessantly held Championship, 14 teams took part from the 14 zones while last one after the democracy was participated by 7 teams from five regional development areas and Police’s Team plus Armies’ Team. There appeared some countable pros and cons when the national selection process changed from zonal to regional level. The audience participated least numbers since the matches observed in regional level. There came out lack of team spirit within the team itself. On the other, new faces could get a chance to show their skills and talents, as they were nominated form the district level in first phase.

In the fifth National Sports, the total of 1425 players of seven teams will compete for 741 totalities of medals. Though the medals numbers are increasing, the insertion of the events are in decreasing rate in the 4th and 5th National Sports in comparison with the preceding Championships. Both National Sports of post democracy period are taken into consideration for the preparations in SAF and the events included also reckon with the numbers of matches that included in SAF. It is the 4th National Sports that played a vital hand to Nepal to come across with second place. The timing of 5th National Sports is also just what the doctor ordered, that provide players to warm-up for the approaching 9th SAF scheduled to play in Pakistan.

It is the great festival for the personalities and lovers of sports of the nation. Now, it is proper occasion for the officials, players, coaches, socialist, government and media persons to play a key role to carry out the event in magnificent manner. The preferred players will carry the national flag in the international venture, which will determine the position of sports plus the craze of the people on sporting events of this Himalayan Kingdom.

Press meet on National Sports

Post Report

KATMANDU, May 30- Dilendra Prashad Badu, the state minister of Education and Sports, informed about the preparation of the 5th National Sports at a press conference, organized by National Sports Council, today.

Minister Badu highlighted the budget expended till May 30 that accounts Rs 3, 05, 90, 093. The press meet also informed the 5 members executive committee on the chairmanship of Lal Bahadur Bista to observe the kits and its quality. The 5th National Sports is planning to felicitate and award the players, national organization, coach and journalists.

The meet also revealed about the broadcasting policy of the events through electronic media: Nepal Television and Radio Nepal, throughout the nation.

Journalists from various sectors of communication inquired about the events during the conference.

The member secretary of National Sports Council Binod Shanker Palikhe and the president of marketing executive committee Geeta Rana along with minister Badu responded to the questions put by journalists.

SAAF Cup schedule on January

KATHMANDU (PR) - The date for the for the 5th SAAF Cup is confirmed by a meeting of the South Asian Football Federation in Colombo, Sri Lanka, read a press release issued today by Asian Football Confederation.

The competition will be staged in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 26th January to 7th February 2002. Due to the World Cup qualifiers and Afro-Asian Games in October and November, the fixture of the region premier international tournament is extended for the last week of January.

Bhutan, for the first time is taking part in the SAAF Cup, in which seven teams will be drawn into two groups. The top two teams from each group will then enter the semi-finals.