He, however, denied fielding Nepali players as Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans as alleged by journalist Sirajuddin Khan of Nepalgunj, Naya Patrika daily reported Friday.
He said Indian team brought players to represent Sri Lanka in the tournament. Balal said the organizers were forced to do so following pressure from Asian Taekwondo Federation (ATF) not to postpone the tournament. He showed a letter from ATF that directed to hold the event on schedule even if there was representation of just Nepal and India as the tournament was already campaigned internationally.
Khan alleged the organizers of fielding at least eight Nepali nationals, all from Nepalgunj, as players from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, The Rising Nepal reported that Minister for Youth and Sports Gopal Man Shakya has vowed to take action against Nepal ITF if found guilty. Shakya said he has given directives to the National Sports Council (NSC) to investigate into the issue.
The three-day event had ended farcically with confusion as to which country won the team trophy. The organizers initially declared India as the winner and NSC Member Secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha handed over the trophy to India and the electronic media broadcast the news.
But the organizers later telephoned print media telling that Nepal was the winner and they covered it accordingly. “India was given the responsibility to handle the technical aspects of the tournament and they, intentionally, declared India as the winner,” Balal informed adding that India apologized verbally for the mistake. But the Indians returned home with the trophy early Thursday morning. The technical committee had added medals of eight team sparring events that were not held, owing to lack of players, to India.
Related story
Daraz Nepal participates in Bhintuna rally along with ‘Spot the...
