KATHMANDU: The International Korfball Federation (IKF) advisor from Netherlands, Edwin van Kooten Niekerk, expects that Nepal can get inside the top ranked Korfball playing Asian countries within three years.

Niekerk is training the national Korfball team members following his holiday trip that eventually turned into an official one. Niekerk was here for a holiday trip and started the training after the IKF assigned him the job following a request from Korfball Federation of Nepal (KFN).

The training runs through September 26. The game of Korfball is less known in the country but Niekerk sees good future of of the sport in Nepal. “It’s a good experience to train the enthusiastic Nepali players. These players look to take the game seriously,” says the IKF official.

“As the other Asian countries associated with the IKF have slowed down their activities, the IKF could focus on the new member countries like Nepal,” he says. Nepal is the 58th member of the IKF.

The KFN has speed up its activities and has announced the first National Korfball Championship

this November which

will also select the best players to participate in Asian Ocean Korfball Championship due to held in Japan in 2011.

Niekerk believes his training would help the players boost the confidence in them. “I am extending my expertise to the players which will help them play the game by the international rules,” the Dutch states.

The national game of Netherlands, Korfball is played in 60 countries. Nepal have already played the Asian Korfball Championship in 2008 in India.

European Championship, Asian Championship, Asian Ocean Championship are other mass meetings of the game.

The only mixed team game of the world, Korfball was introduced 107 years ago in the Netherlands by a school teacher named Nico Brocusen. Played in a court measuring 40 metres in length and 20 metres in width, the players need to score in a basket which is placed at 11.5 foot high.