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Gyan Carnival to become national-level event
KATHMANDU, DEC 10 - The 11th edition of the basketball tournament of the Gyan Carnival is all set to be recognised as the National school-level basketball tournament. Started in 1994 by Gyanodaya Bal Batika School with five teams, the Gyan Carnival is on its tenth year. The signing-in of the agreement between Nepal Basketball Association (NeBA) and Gyanodaya will be held during the inauguration ceremony of the Tenth-Anniversary Eicher Gyan Carnival 2003 on Wednesday.
"There is a need of a recognised tournament for the school-level competition," NeBA Secretary Mahendra Man Shakya told The Kathmandu Post adding that the Gyan Carnival had been chosen among the numerous school level tournaments currently being organised because it is an old and prestigious one. "Instead of organising a different tournament altogether, like we are doing at the club level, we decided to recognise a tournament already being organised regularly," he added. According to Shakya, no other school or organisation has been able to hold as many tournaments as regularly.
The tournament, currently featuring a maximum of 16 teams in the boys and 12 in the girls, will need to change its format. "We are thinking of holding a preliminary qualifying round," said Anmol Kulung Rai, head of sports of Gyanodaya. Shakya also pointed the need for the same and said that a system for seeding teams should be developed so that only the best teams play in the final 16. Rai also revealed that most of the details are still to be worked out at the centres like Pokhara, Dharan and Butwal. Those centres will be sending a team and the organisers are also looking at Biratnagar and Chitwan.
Whether the best school from those areas or a separate district team will come, is yet to be decided.
NeBA’s main responsibility in the proposed tournament is to find, communicate and coordinate with the teams from outside Kathmandu. NeBA will also provide sponsors for the lodging and fooding of the teams while the teams themselves will be responsible for the transportation expenses.Nirakar Yakthumba, Gyanodya’s director, is very pleased with the proposed tournament. "Basketball in Nepal has come a long way since we started the Gyan Carnival in 1994. For a tournament that has been organised for ten straight years, this is the best that could have happened," he said.But at the same time, Yakthumba says that the agreement should not be a ‘perpetual one’. "I am thinking of an agreement for some years depending on satisfaction of work from both the sides," he told The Kathmandu Post.The NeBA has also decided to hold an intermediate-level national basketball tournament.Posted on: 2003-12-11 04:29
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