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| Kathmandu, Thursday May 02, 2002 Baishakh 19, 2059. |
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Basketball awaits lay-up from
officials
By Purushottam Kattel
KATHMANDU, May 1: Basketball, notwithstanding
somewhat complicated rules, is a sport that appeals majority of school and college goers
in the Kathmandu valley. Unlike other popular pastime sports football and cricket,
basketball requires a small space thus making it one of the ideal sports for country like
Nepal.
But the sport, whose playing courts would often
decorate most of the capital’s school and college premises, is yet to spread its
wings.
The Nepal Basketball Association (NBA), after
remaining idle for long, showed some sign of activity by holding a referee clinic but
basketball experts and practitioners alike here feel that the association should think
beyond holding such one-off programme.
"NBA has been too slow in promoting the
sport," says Zaheer Khan, member of the organising committee and technical
coordinator of the annual Amrit Trophy Basketball tournament. "Besides, the
association has failed to coordinate with the referees and teams."
NBA, established in 1996, was reformed in 2000
and subsequently affiliated to the basketball’s world ruling body – Federation
of International Basketball Association (FIBA) later that year.
NBA, while conceding that the body had remained
in oblivion in past, claimed to have been active since being reformed two years back.
"We are doing our best despite our limited resources," said Sita Pandey,
general-secretary of NBA.
She lamented that the association, despite
having number of attractive ideas on the game’s promotion, has failed to go ahead
owing to lack of budget.
"The association is yet to receive any
financial assistance from the National Sports Council," she said. "Whatever the
association has done over two years was possible through funds contributed by its own
executive members."
And under the present situation, it is highly
unlikely that NBA, as well as other sports associations for that matter, would receive
funding from the country’s apex sports governing body.
"The government has drastically curtailed
its budget to the sports sector, making our task to keep up with sports activities only
more difficult," said Binod Shankar Palikhe, the member-secretary of NSC. "We do
have plans to improve facilities aimed at promoting basketball in the country. But we are
unable to do anything until the situation improves."
But some basketball enthusiasts still see some
avenues from where NBA could generate funds to pursue with its programmes.
"NBA could generate funds if it comes along
with interesting programmes," says Nirakar Yakthumba, the principal of Gyanodaya
School.
Yakthumba, who has been actively involved with
the school’s annual inter-school basketball feast regularly organising inter-school
basketball competition – Gyan Carnival, further adds: "Host of companies are
keen to be part of sports events. Eicher was the main sponsor for the last year’s
Gyan Carnival."
Meanwhile, Pandey, who is heading for Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia to attend the congress of Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) taking
place there on May 4, said that she would request the ABC for possible support for a coach
training and solidarity course. Besides, she informed that the NBA will organise a 16-team
National Basketball Championship for both men and women from May 11.
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