The 11th South Asian Games (SAG) is to be held from Jan. 29 to Feb. 8 in 2010 in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
The 39th executive meeting of South Asian Olympic Council (SAOC) held in Nepali capital Kathmandu on Monday night decided the date. Before that, host Bangladesh once decided to organize South Asian Mega sports event on November, 2009. But due to the general elections in Bangladesh, the games were postponed.
The meeting also decided to include eight more games in the 11th edition of SAG. They are badminton, basketball, cricket, judo, volleyball, wrestling, golf and cycling.
Wrestling and golf were selected by host nation Bangladesh. Cricket, basketball and golf were introduced for the first time in SAG.
However, there will be only female events on badminton and cycling for the eight added games.
Cricket will play on 20-20-over format by players aged under 21.
Except Afghanistan, all seven South Asian countries members were present on the meeting.
President of Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan is happy over including more games in SAG . He said to Xinhua on Tuesday, "Judo, wrestling and badminton help Nepal to grab more medals."
Besides the eight added games, another 15 games were decided earlier at the meeting. They are athletics, archery, boxing, football, hockey, handball, kabaddi, karate, swimming, shooting, squash Taekwondo, table tennis, weightlifting and Wushu.
(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2009)
