"To end the controversy, I opted to lead the squad in Guangzhou," said Minister Nepali referring to the fallout between Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Sports Council (NSC).[break]
"I don´t know what the difference is between a team leader and a chef de mission. I´m attending the Asiad for the first time. I´ll know about my portfolio when I reach Guangzhou," said Nepali.
There is no practice in international sports events of appointing two different persons as team leader and chef de mission. Usually, chef de mission leads the national squad in such events.
Even though NOC and NSC had reached an agreement to appoint Minister Nepali as the team leader, NOC Vice-president Umesh Lal Shrestha has the portfolio of chef de mission in the Nepali squad.
Ramesh Khanal, a former chief of a department at NOC, argued that chef de mission is the leader of any national squad. "The leader of any national team in international tournaments is only chef de mission," said Khanal.
After a marathon meeting at the Youth and Sports Ministry on November 4, NSC and NOC had reached an agreement ensuring Nepal´s participation in 20 games in the Asiad. After the meeting, NOC General Secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha had informed the media that Minister Nepali was to lead the Nepali squad in the Asiad but had remained silent about chef de mission.
NOC, which was well aware that only the person appointed by it could be chef de mission, had agreed to accept Minister Nepali as the team leader. "NOC was talking about the charter while NSC was demanding that the laws of the land be followed, so I asked them to end the controversy and give the minister the role of team leader," said Minister Nepali. "After both bodies agreed on it, we didn´t discuss about chef de mission."
Delay in flight
Minister Nepali and 37 other members of the Asiad squad will reach Guangzhou, the host city, a day later than the scheduled date after NSC failed to manage plane tickets for the scheduled date. They were to leave Kathmandu for Guangzhou on Wednesday, but are flying only on Thursday. The squad includes Minister Nepali, NSC´s member-secretary and other officials as well as the table tennis and badminton teams.
"There is a sub-committee to manage air tickets," said Nabin Upreti, secretary of the Asiad preparation committee. "The committee could not manage tickets for the scheduled date, but from now on everyone will fly on their scheduled dates," he added.
"We have received all the tickets now and everything will go as per the plan," said Upreti.
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