Nat’l volleyball in Pokhara

Published On: January 9, 2017 02:30 AM NPT By: Santosh Pokharel

POKHARA, Jan 9: Western Regional Sports Development Committee is organizing Srijana Invitational Men’s and Women’s National Volleyball Tournament at Pokhara Stadium in Kaski from January 31 to February 3.

The tournament organized with the view to develop Pokhara as sports city and contribute in production of new talents will see participation of top level players of the game. The tournament will be played under league-cum-knockout format on rubber mat.

According to the organizer, the tournament will see participation of all three departmental teams - Tribhuvan Army Club, Nepal Police Club, Armed Police Force - besides Western Regional Volleyball Association in both men’s and women’s sections.

New Diamond Academy and Help Nepal Sports Club will vie in women’s section only, according to Khagraj Paudel, the president of Western Regional Sports Development Committee. The top two finishers of the tournament in either category will bag a purse of Rs 155,555 and Rs 77,777 respectively along with medals, certificates and trophies. Similarly, the best individual player will also be rewarded.

“Western Region has given special recognition to national volleyball. The tournament will be vital in upcoming days to produce new talents,” he said.

Meanwhile, Srijana Bikash Kendra signed a MoU of sponsorship with Western Regional Sports Development Committee for the tournament. Paudel of Western Regional Sports Development Committee and Srijana’s President Arjun Shrestha signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

Shrestha declared to provide cash of Rs 700,000 to run the tournament. “This is not the first time that we have supported volleyball. Though we have supported the game since long, there were some technical problems in the past few years. However, we will try to continue our support in the future as well,” he shared, adding that the company was planning to support the event for next four years.

Srijana is an INGO based in Pokhara and has been providing micro finance service in rural areas of the country with the support of Nepal Rastra Bank.

According to Paudel, the Regional Sports Development Committee was planning to organize the tournament after properly managing volleyball court of the Pokhara Stadium.

He shared that the organizer was planning to construct temporary wooden parapet which could accommodate 5,000 spectators. “We are forced to make temporary arrangements after the government did not allocate amount required to fully complete the construction of the court.”

He further added that they were planning to expand the court into volleyball training center. The court was destroyed for the expansion purpose but insufficient budged allocation has delayed the construction of the proposed training center. Few days ago, the Ministry of Finance had allocated Rs 10 million for construction of the training center.

However, the National Sports Council has not provided the budget to the regional sports body. And the construction work will expedite once the budget will be released, Paudel said.