In a cabinet meeting on Monday May 23, it was decided that volleyball will represent the national sport of Nepal. This decision comes after a long three-year process of determining which sport would best represent Nepal.
The Ministry for Youth and Sports initially started discussion of Nepal’s national sport three years ago. This effort included asking the public for their suggestions to help make the decision. Once the decision was made, the Ministry announced that their choice was based off of the suggestions from stakeholders of the sports world in Nepal.
Volleyball was not the only sport that was being considered. Soccer and cricket are both very big sports in Nepal, therefore making the decision even tougher. However, it was concluded that due to volleyball having an easy playable nature in all terrains and country-wide organizations, volleyball beat out both soccer and cricket.
The Nepal Volleyball Association (NVA) had been pursuing the government for five years for this decision to be made. The NVA’s General Secretary Jitendra Bahadur Chand said that, “Volleyball has completed the minimum requirement to become national sport. It can be played anywhere in the country, in any terrains, with a low cost. So it fully deserved to be the national sport.”
Manju Gurung, a member of the women’s national team, was happy about the decision, “Majority of the population grow up playing volleyball. It doesn’t need big space for playing so we can play it everywhere. Not only players but the whole nation is happy about the government’s decision of making volleyball the national sport.”
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