Next SAG at the end of the year

12th SAG to be hosted at Guwahati and Shillong of India

KATHMANDU, June 26: The 12th edition of South Asian Games (SAG) is likely to be held at the end of 2015 in Guwahati and Shillong of India. The National Olympic Committee chief of eight South Asian countries will hold a meeting to decide on the dates of the next edition of the SAG, the mini Olympic of the South Asian region.

“The meeting of the national Olympic chiefs of eight South Asian countries scheduled for July 8 in New Delhi, India, will decide on the dates and venue of next SAG,” Nepal Olympic Committee President Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan told Republica.

India was chosen to host the 12th edition of SAG, a regional sports gala organized bi-annually by each member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

Although the last edition of SAG was held on 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it has not been held since because India, the country chosen to host 12th SAG, did not organize the event due to conflict within Olympic Committee of India and other internal problems. Afghanistan, which joined the SAG for the first time in 2006 after the fall of Taliban regime, and Bhutan has not yet hosted SAG.

NOC has called a meeting with various sports associations of the country for Sunday to discuss Nepal's participation in the SAG. "We have called a meeting of sports associations. The games Nepal will play shall be selected on the basis of potential and past results," Pradhan shared.

The best results Nepal achieved in SAG was during the eighth edition in 1999 in Kathmandu in which Nepal finished second with 32 gold, 10 silver and 24 bronze. Nepal had won 28 gold medals from taekwondo and karate.

The host country reserves the right to add at least two games depending on its suitability. "Though the host country holds the right to add two games, India may propose to add more than two games as it has the infrastructure to accommodate more sports events," Pradhan said.

The last edition of SAG featured 23 games including archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, football, golf, handball, hockey, judo, kabbadi, karate, swimming, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu.

According to Indian news agency PTI, Indian Prime Minister's Office has given official sanction of the SAG to be held in Guwahati and Shillong between November 2015 and January 2016.

The news agency has quoted Indian Olympic Association General Secretary Rajeev Mehta as saying, "As of now, the minimum number of disciplines is 22 but a final decision on this number will be taken in the meeting. There will be other matters on the agenda concerning the hosting of the games."

The budget for hosting the SAG, which is likely to be a 12-day affair, has been estimated at IRs 60-70 crore and the Sports Ministry will bear around 90 per cent of the cost, the report states.

The SAG will feature around 2,500 participants from eight SAARC nations: Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

SAG, the bi-annual event, which began in 1984 from Kathmandu, was held on regular basis until the seventh edition on alphabetical order. The second edition was held in 1985 in Bangladesh. But only four editions have been possible after Madras SAG, the seventh edition held in 1995.