Kathmandu, August 19

New Diamond Academy and Shivam Cement today signed the one-year sponsorship agreement.

Vice-president, Sales and Marketing at Shivam Cement Sajan Devkota and NDA coach Kumar Rai signed the Memorandum of Understanding amidst a programme. As per the agreement, Shivam Cement will provide the NDA with Rs 800,000 in a year. The club will spend Rs 300,000 on kits, while NDA organise women’s national open volleyball tournament with the remaining amount of Rs 500,000.

NDA players and officials will wear kits with Shivam Cement logo in the tournaments. Devkota along with NDA skipper Lalita Nath and spiker Pratibha Mali — brand ambassador of NDA’s kits sponsor Sahas Sports — also unveiled the new jersey of the club.

Thanking Shivam Cement for the generous support to the club, NDA coach Rai said the deal added new challenges for the club to perform better. “After years of struggle, we have got Shivam Cement as the sponsor and it has added more responsibilities on us. We need to better our performance to come up with better results. We are aiming at producing sensational results in national and international competitions and want to show that Nepal has the best players,” said Rai. Rai said the NDA would announce the date for the national open tournament after consulting with Nepal Volleyball Association.

Devkota said both the parties share similar tag line — no compromise on commitment and dedication. “Our target is to satisfy the buyers and NDA’s aim is to produce the best results for the audience,” he said. Devkota pointed out the need of corporate sector’s involvement in making sports professional. “We have taken a small initiation and I hope Nepal’s volleyball will move towards professionalism if other corporate houses join in the sport,” added Devkota, who also said that the sponsorship amount could be increased in future on mutual understanding.

Similarly, NVA General Secretary Jitendra Bahadur Chand said corporate houses would come forward to sponsor different clubs if they perform better and produce talented players. NVA Vice-president Ranjan Khadka urged the corporate sector to follow Shivam Cement and invest in sports. Meanwhile, NVA General Secretary Chand handed over five balls and a net to NDA coach Rai.