Nepali Men's Kabaddi Team Departs for India for Asian Games Preparation

Kathmandu. The Nepali men's kabaddi team is leaving for Haryana, India on Thursday for preparation for the 20th Asian Games to be held in Japan. The team is going to Haryana for training.

The players participating in the training are Ghanashyam Roka Magar, Anku Pun, Adit Chaudhary, Prakash Giri, Suraj Bohara, Sanskar Kumar, Ravi Tharu, Ashok Joshi, Sagar Yadav, Kumar Lama, Ganesh Parki, and Karun Rasaili. Ghanashyam, Anku, Ravi, and Karun are already training in India. Ghanashyam is in Haryana while the other three players are in Himachal Pradesh. They will join the team from there.

Bishnu Datt Bhatta is the head coach, Kalyan Bhujel is the assistant coach, and Parshuram Oli is the manager. Manager Oli will go to India only after a few days.

The players will train for one month at Sandeep Narwal Academy in Haryana. After that, the team has a program to go to Thailand for training as well, informed Arvind Kumar Jha, General Secretary of the All Nepal Kabaddi Association.

'Our team will go to Thailand only if Chinese Taipei also comes to Thailand,' General Secretary Jha clarified about the preparation. 'There will be practice matches between three nations including us. If Taipei does not go to Thailand, we will continue our training in Jaipur and Uttar Pradesh in India. We will also play practice matches with various local teams in India.'

The Nepali team will participate in the Asian Games to be held from September 19 to October 4 directly from the training venue. This will be the fifth participation of the Nepali men's kabaddi team in the Asian Games. Earlier, the men's team had participated in the Asian Games held in China in 1990, Japan in 1994, Thailand in 1998, and Indonesia in 2018.

The Nepali women's kabaddi team will also participate in the 20th Asian Games. This is the second participation for the women's team. The women's team had won a historic bronze medal in its first participation in the 19th Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China.

The men's team leaving for India was bid farewell by National Sports Council Vice-Chairman Bishal Shrestha and Kabaddi Association President Tulsi Thapa at a program on Wednesday. Addressing the program, Vice-Chairman Shrestha advised the players to prepare well and wished them the best for excellent results in the Asian Games.