14th South Asia Games: Bhutan’s Prince Wangchuck to host key moot in July

Bhutan’s Prince Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, who has replaced Pakistan’s Lt General (retd) Syed Arif Hasan as vice-president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will host a meeting of the South Asian Olympic Council (SAOC) in July, Nukta has reliably learnt.

The meeting’s time-frame is crucial in a sense that the member nations will also debate on the fate of the 14th South Asian Games which Pakistan is set to host late next January in Islamabad and three different cities of the Punjab including Lahore.

The meeting has a lot of significance as by then there are chances that both Pakistan and India would have restored some normalcy in their diplomatic relations following a deadly conflict.

Nukta understands that Pakistan is determined to host the South Games as per schedule but the big issue is whether India will feature in it.

Nukta has learnt that on the sideline of the OCA General Assembly in Kuwait which concluded on Monday nothing formal was discussed among the SAOC member nations about the South Asian Games.

Yes, some informal discussion was held among Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives and Bangladesh and Pakistan showed its resolve that it would go for hosting the said event as per schedule.

The delegates from Sri Lanka and India did not attend the OCA General Assembly.

In February this year the SAOC delegation had visited Pakistan to finalize the dates for the region’s mega event.

A representative of the India Olympic Association (IOA) had also attended that meeting via video link from India.

The delegation included representatives of National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Initially Pakistan was supposed to host the 14th South Asian Games in 2021 but it was postponed for a few times due to Covid and economic and political situation of Pakistan.

However, this time the state is committed to go ahead with the sporting spectacle in January.

This correspondent has also learnt that Prince Jigyel is also interested in the introduction of mini-games at the South Asian level in the future. He is of the view, according to sources, that SAOC member nations should host the mini-games every year on rotation policy, featuring maximum of ten disciplines.

For the last several years the South Asian Games have been held quite irregularly despite the fact that it’s a biennial event which must be organized after every two years.

Sri Lanka had hosted the tenth edition in 2006. Dhaka then hosted the 11th edition in 2010. India then went for hosting the 12th edition in 2016 and Nepal organized the 13th edition in 2019. Pakistan had to host the 14th edition in 2021 which is now supposed to take place early next year.