KATHMANDU, Jan 24: Nepali national women's volleyball team is leaving for Maldives on Wednesday to compete in the qualifiers of Asian Central Zone under Women's World Volleyball Championship.
It will be the first occasion that Nepali women's volleyball team will be competing in the official tournament of FIVB, the international apex body of volleyball.
The Central Zone will feature three teams including Maldives, Iran and Nepal. The Team Nepal will consist of all players who featured during 12th South Asian Games (SAG) held in February in India last year. According to Nepal Volleyball Association (NVA), all old faces were named for the tournament due to lack of preparation time.
Nepali team captained by Binita Budathoki will see Saraswati Chaudhary, Prativa Mali, Nebica Chaudhary and vice captain Manju Gurung as open spikers. Reshma Bhandari and Aruna Shahi are back spikers while Kopila Upreti, Usha Kumari Bista and Manisha Chaudhary are quick spikers. Kripa Adhikari is the second setter and Kamala Pun is libero.
Sudesh Kumar Rimal is the coach and Salina Shrestha is the assistant coach while Junu Pun Magar is the team manager. Nepali team will also be accompanied by NVA President Manoranjan Raman Sharma, Vice Presdient Uprendra Yadav, Member Jyoti KC and Western Region Volleyball Association President Chhyam Bahadur Thapa and referee candidate Kul Bahadur Rana.
National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista among other bade farewell to the Team Nepal in Kathmandu on Tuesday.