SA Games prep to start in October

The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) is mulling over when to begin training athletes for next year's South Asian (SA) Games after hosts Nepal ensured on Saturday that the 13th edition of the regional extravaganza will be held from March 9 to 18. The popular sport of cricket will also be reintroduced to the multi-discipline event after a one-edition gap.

“The meeting was held just yesterday [Saturday], now we will sit together and then approach the sports minister and secretary to allocate a budget for training ahead of the SA Games,” said BOA secretary general Syed Shahed Reza yesterday.

“Our main focus remains on the South Asian Games rather than other tournaments, because we always want to produce better results in this regional event,” Shahed said. “If we can start training by October, we will get some four to five months to be prepare but everything depends on the fund allocation from the government.”

Despite its popularity in countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka cricket did not feature as an event in the SA Games until Bangladesh hosted the competition for the third time in 2010. That year, cricket was included for the first time and the Bangladesh under-21 cricket team won the gold medal in the Twenty20 format.

“We raised the issue for cricket to be included at the South Asian Olympic Council meeting in Kathmandu and all the members except Bhutan, who was absent, agreed unanimously to include cricket,” BOA deputy secretary general Asaduzzaman Kohinoor informed yesterday after returning from Nepal.

“This time, the cricket event will be a U-23 team affair with three senior players eligible to play for each side in the Twenty20 format,” Kohinoor added. “There will also be women's cricket in the event, with no age limit on those teams.”

India hosted the previous edition of the SA games in Assam in 2016 but dropped cricket from the itinerary after skipping the event in the 2010 edition in Dhaka. Cricket is now played regularly among six of the eligible countries --India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal—while the three remaining nations are likely to take part in the cricket event either way.

It was also decided at the meeting that 27 disciplines will feature in this tournament, breaking the previous record for the highest number of events played, which was set by Bangladesh in 2010 where 25 disciplines were featured.

Bangladesh bagged 18 gold medal medals in the 2010 SA Games at home following a year-long training programme but the number of gold medals slipped to four in the last SA Games.