Sports in Nepal
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Sport in Nepal is an important part of Nepalese culture, encompassing both traditional Nepalese games and modern international disciplines. While Nepal has a long history of traditional sports, the contemporary era is dominated by cricket, football, and volleyball.[1]
On May 23, 2017, the Government of Nepal officially declared volleyball as the national sport[2], succeeding traditional games like dandi biyo and kabaddi, which were previously considered the de facto national games.[3]
Since the establishment of the National Sports Council (Nepal) in 1959, Nepalese athletes made their Olympic Games debut at the 1964 Summer Olympics and their Paralympic Games debut at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. However, Nepal had not secured an official medal in either event—until taekwondo athlete Palesha Goverdhan made history by winning a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. This marked Nepal's first-ever official medal in the Paralympic or Olympic Games, placing the country on the Paralympic medal tally for the very first time.[4][5] For this historic and remarkable achievement, Palesha Goverdhan was awarded रू65 lakh (US$43,000) by the Nepalese prime minister KP Oli on behalf of the Government of Nepal on 13 September 2024.[6]
History
[edit]International Competition
[edit]Olympics
[edit]Nepal first competed in the summer Olympics at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and has competed in eleven straight summer Olympics starting from the 1972 Munich Olympics. Nepal has also competed in four winter Olympic events first competing in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics and last competed in the event at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. As of 2018, Nepal has not won a medal in any of the Olympic events.
Asian Games
[edit]Nepal competed at first Asian Games in 1951 at New Delhi and won its first medal at the event in the 1986 Seoul Games, winning 8 bronze medals. As of 2018, Nepal has won 2 silver medals and 22 bronze medals at the event.
South Asian Games
[edit]Nepal has competed in every edition of the South Asian Games and has hosted the event in 1984, 1999 and 2019. As of 2019, Nepal is the fourth-most successful country, winning 679 medals winning 130 gold medals, 182 silver medals and 367 bronze medals.
National Competition
[edit]National Games of Nepal
[edit]The Nepal Olympic Committee and the National Sports Council hosts the National Games of Nepal every two or three years. The event is meant to identify talent for the South Asian Games, Asian Games and Olympic Games as well as develop sporting infrastructure throughout the country. The National Games have been held eight times with the first event being held in 1982 at Kathmandu.
National Sports Leagues
[edit]Franchise League
| Sport | Domestic League | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Teams | Women | Teams | |
 Cricket |
Prime Minister One Day Cup | 10 | Prime Minister Women's T20 Cup | 9 |
| Nepal Premier League (NPL)[7] | 8 | Lalitpur Mayors Cup | 5 | |
 Football |
Nepal Super League(NSL) | 9 | ANFA Women's League | 10 |
| A Division League | 14 | |||
| B Division League | 14 | |||
| C Division League | 14 | |||
 Volleyball |
PM Cup NVA Volleyball League | 8 | PM Cup NVA Volleyball League | 6 |
| Nepal Volleyball League(NVL) | 6 | Everest Women's Volleyball League(EWVL)[8] | 6 | |
 Basketball |
Nepal Basketball League (NBL) | 8 | Nepal Women's Basketball League (NBL) | 4 |
 Futsal |
'A' Division National Futsal League | 10 | ||
 Golf |
Surya Nepal Premier Golf Championship | |||
 Cycling |
Nepalese National Championships | |||
 Shooting |
National Shooting Championship | |||
 Field hockey |
National Men's Hockey Tournament | _ | National Women's Hockey Tournament | _ |
 Aquatics |
Nepal Aquatics Championship | |||
 Rugby union |
Nepal 15s Rugby League | _ | Rugby National Women's Tournament | _ |
| Rugby 7S National Tournament | _ | |||
 Kabaddi |
Nepal Kabaddi League (NKL) | 6 | _ | _ |
Main sports
[edit]Football
[edit]
Football, also known as soccer, is the most popular sport in Nepal.[9] The All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) is the governing body of Nepalese football that organizes the men's and women's national teams.
Football was introduced to Nepal during the Rana regime in the 1921.[10] Since its introduction play was mostly limited to the Kathmandu Valley but since the turn of the millennium more tournaments have started to be organized throughout the country. The Martyr's Memorial A-Division League is the premier football league in Nepal and has been organized since 1955.
The Nepal national team was organized in 1972 after being affiliated to FIFA in 1971 and lost to China in their first official match. Nepal regularly participates in tournaments organized by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and was the winner of the 2016 AFC Solidarity Cup.
Cricket
[edit]Cricket is the second most popular sport in Nepal.[11] It rapidly grew in popularity in the mid 2010s, following the slight successes of the Nepalese cricket team as well as the country's explosive rise in social media and television viewing influence from neighboring country India.
The Nepal national cricket team is controlled by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) which was founded in 1946.[12] CAN became a member of the National Sports Council in 1961 and was awarded affiliate status by the International Cricket Council in 1988 and since 1996 has been recognized as an associate member.[13] Nepal has been successful in regional events organized by the Asian Cricket Council, placing first in the ACC Fast Track Countries Tournament in 2006/07 and sharing the title with the United Arab Emirates in the 2012 ACC Trophy Elite. The women's team made their debut in 2007 and has qualified for the Women's Asia Cup in 2012 and 2016.[12]
Nepal qualified for the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 which was the only appearance by the senior men's team at a major ICC event, which also gave them Twenty20 International (T20I) until 2015.[14] The national under-19 team has qualified for the Under-19 Cricket World Cup seven times including winning the Plate Championship in 2006. Recently Nepal has qualified and played in the ICC World Twenty20 2024.
Nepal claimed One Day International (ODI) status for the first time with their six wicket win over Papua New Guinea in the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier play off encounter on 15 March 2018.[15][16] The men and women's team both currently have T20I status as a result of an ICC decision to expand the status to all member nations.[17]
Volleyball
[edit]Volleyball, the third most popular sport in Nepal, was declared the national sport of Nepal on 22 May 2017 (2074 Jestha 8).[2] The Nepal Volleyball Association (NVA) is the governing body of volleyball in Nepal and organizes the men's and women's national teams. Nepal competes in tournaments organized by the Central Asian Zonal Volleyball Association which operates under the Asian Volleyball Confederation.
As in many other countries, women's volleyball is more popular than men's.[18] it is played in all 77 district which means all parts of Nepal.
Administration
[edit]National teams
[edit]| Sport | National Team | Association |
|---|---|---|
Badminton  |
(M & W) | NBA |
Baseball  |
(M & W) | NBSA |
| Basketball |
(M, W) | NeBA |
| Cricket |
(M, W) | CAN |
| Field hockey |
(M, W) | NHA |
| Football |
(M, W) | ANFA |
| Futsal |
(M) | ANFA |
Handball  |
(M, W) | NHA |
| Kabaddi |
(M, W ) | ANKA |
Kho Kho  |
(M, W) | NKKA |
Rugby Union  |
(M) | NRA |
| Volleyball |
(M, W) | NVA |
International sports events held in Nepal
[edit]The following is a list of international sports events held in Nepal:
Sports Awards
[edit]- NSJF Sports Award
- Pokhara Sports Award
- NNIPA Sports Award
References
[edit]- ↑ "Changing Trend". GorakhaPatra. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
- 1 2 "It's official: Volleyball is the national sport of Nepal – OnlineKhabar". 23 May 2017. Archived from the original on 23 May 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
- ↑ "Boy Playing Dandi Biyo- national game of nepal". Retrieved 26 January 2026.
- ↑ "Palesha Goverdhan takes Nepali sports to a new high". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
- ↑ "Palesha Goverdhan wins historic Paralympic bronze". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
- ↑ "Government honours Paralympic bronze medallist Palesha Goverdhan with Rs6.5 million cash prize". The Kathmandu Post. 13 September 2024. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
- ↑ "CAN to organise Nepal Premier League in November and December". kathmandupost.com. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
- ↑ "Everest Women's Volleyball League". Hamro Khelkud. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
- ↑ https://www.collegenp.com/article/sports-and-recreation-scene-in-nepal
- ↑ "ANFA | About". the-anfa.com. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ↑ https://www.collegenp.com/article/sports-and-recreation-scene-in-nepal
- 1 2 "About – Cricket Association of Nepal". Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ↑ "Nepal can become a major cricketing force among associate countries". Cricket Country. 7 April 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ↑ "Nepal enters ICC World Twenty20 with thrilling win". www.icc-cricket.com. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ↑ "Nepal make cricket history after securing ODI status". Retrieved 8 September 2018.
- ↑ "'Biggest day in Nepal cricket history' - Khadka". ESPNcricinfo. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
- ↑ "All T20 matches between ICC members to get international status". www.icc-cricket.com. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
- ↑ "Volleyball is my first love: Shahi". The Himalayan Times. 22 December 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
Further reading
[edit]- "Football at the heart of the Himalaya". FIFA. Archived from the original on 9 September 2005. Retrieved 23 September 2005.
External links
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