Uncertain fate of 13th South Asian Games

The fate of 13^th South Asian Games is once again doomed with uncertainty as Nepal’s sport’s governing body National Sports Council hinted at their inability to host the regional games in stipulated time. Recently the Council decided to postpone the eighth edition of National Games two months further citing the incompletion of the construction of needed infrastructure. The sport’s governing body blamed monsoon and lack of budget in the delay of the infrastructure building.  The same reasons are going to be held responsible in the postponement of the SAG once again.

SAG is slated to be held in Kathmandu and Pokhara on March 2019. Two years ago, Nepal was given the baton of hosting the Games in 2018 by South Asian Olympic Council in the concluding day of the 12^th SAG held in India. Nepal also claimed the right to host the event as per its natural turn in the alphabetical rotation. Despite the doubt from the member nations that Nepal could not host the game owing to the devastation of the infrastructure from the massive earthquake that rocked the nation on 2014, Nepal convinced them of being capable to run the event in time.  

However, Nepal could not hold the regional sports carnival in the stipulated time. Nepal blamed the election and incompletion of the maintenance and construction of the infrastructure to buy one more year.

With an aim to hold the event every two years the SAG was started in 1984 and Nepal became the first country to host it.  During these 34 years SAG should have completed its 17^th edition but owing to various reasons it has been a subject of delay time and again. Nepal also organized SAG for the second time in 1999.

But this time again the sports administrators are not convinced of themselves in hosting the SAG. Sports official has been saying that the regional sports gala won’t be stopped in the pretext of infrastructure building. As the time to host the regional games is approaching near, they are searching various pretext to rationalise their failure to complete the SAG preparation in time. 

In addition to the incomplete infrastructure building, they have now added budget crunch and policy level hindrance in their list of reasons to delay the much awaited event.

If the version of the Member secretary Keshav Kumar Bista is to be believed, the allotted one billion rupees for the SAG preparation has not been transferred to the account of the council. Besides, the Member secretary thinks the budget is insufficient to cover even the work of two months. Despite of the assurance from the Finance ministry to increase the budget, the preparation for the SAG will be hardly completed in the six months period, owing to the tender process of government.  

Moreover, the main organising committee to hold the SAG, which is coordinated by the Minister of Youth and Sports, has not been fully formed yet.  The committee is responsible to make the directives, working procedures and financial plans needed to organise the SAG.

But the meeting of the committee has not been held since the arrival of the present Minister Jagat Bahadur Bishwakarma, according to the report. If the committee does not hold the meeting and completes its task within one month, the organising of SAG in the scheduled time is impossible.

In addition, the reconstruction of the Dasarath Stadium is still going on and it does not look like it will be completed soon. The installation of synthetic track and flood light has not been done yet. The reconstruction of the main parapet of the stadium is still going on. The construction of the stadium in Pokhara has not been started yet.

The training of the players has not been thought yet as the selection of players for the National Games has not been started. Though Players got the international exposure from participating in the Asian Games recently held in Indonesia, their dismal performance in Jakarta and Palembang has emphasised on the need of timely training and coaching.

In these various pretext, sports administrators are likely to delay the SAG once again keeping the future of the Nepali players at stake. The postponement of the SAG won’t hamper the officials that much as to the players. The delay in the SAG can provide the sports officials’ opportunity to earn quick bucks engaging in irregularities. But to the players, the delay means their hard work of so many years will turn into vapour. The players who have the potential to win a medal today will get older and can be even deprived of taking part in the games owing to the age bar. This is the only international event, where Nepali players bank on to excel and win as much as medals for the nation.

So it is high time that the Minister of Sports, National Sports Council and Nepal Olympic Committee have a serious thinking before deciding on another postponement. They should even dare to decide to pull out from hosting the SAG if they are responsible for the future of the players. It would be good to hold the 14th edition of the SAG with full preparation then to host the current in haste and unpreparedness.