Resumption of Nepali sports activities

The Nepali sports sector, which has been at a standstill for the past two years due to Covid-19, had virtually been frozen after being without a member secretary of the council for three months.

The activities of the Sports Council have resumed after Sports Minister Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj appointed Kul Bahadur Thapa, a senior employee of the National Sports Council, as the Acting Secretary of the council a few days ago. Accordingly, the trainers and staff working there have received their salaries. The National Sports Council has more than one thousand employees and trainers working.

Similarly, the preparations for the Ninth National Games scheduled to be held in Pokhara will be started soon. For this, a meeting with the National Sports Associations is to be held.

Thapa informed NepalNews that a committee has been formed under the vice-chairman of the council to prepare the budget for the upcoming sports. The Ninth National Games will now have to be organized within a month. Now that local body elections have been announced about two months later, it is not possible to organize national games during the elections. About 35 sports competitions will be conducted in the Ninth National Games.

As there is no swimming pool under the council in Pokhara, swimming competitions will have to be held in private sector swimming pools. Similarly, as the shooting range is not in Pokhara, the aim is to hold shooting games in Lalitpur.

Although players will be able to participate in the upcoming national games from the district level selection stage, no selection competition has been conducted so far. Only limited sports training is being conducted, targeting the upcoming National Games.

Furthermore, the selection of Nepali players to participate in the Asian Games to be held in China in September will be done soon and also for the upcoming South Asian Games.

Acting Secretary Thapa also informed that the construction work of the physical infrastructure of sports, which was halted, has been resumed.

There are currently more than 150 sports associations under the National Sports Council. However, very few of these unions have been found to be active. The All Nepal Football Association has been participating in various competitions even during the pandemic. Currently, the National League Football Competition is going on. Similarly, the Cricket Association of Nepal has permitted the Nepali Cricket Team to participate in various international competitions. Recently, competitions in basketball, volleyball, badminton, marathon and other sports have been organized.

Compared to the previous years, Nepal's international participation and medals have been declining. It has been felt that the condition of sports in Nepal is deteriorating due to the change in the apex of sports in Nepal after the change of government.