Kathmandu, May 18:

Nepal Badminton Association (NBA) is organising the Nepal International Badminton Series 2008 from June 18-22 in Kathmandu.

A total of 84 players from 11 Asian countries — including 16 men and eight women shuttlers from Nepal — will take part in the event, recognised by Badminton World Federation (BWF) and supported by Badminton Asia Confederation (BAC) and National Sports Council (NSC), said NBA president Prakash Bahadur Shahi.

The other participating countries are India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, Thailand, Iran, Singapore and Korea. The tournament will be played under the BWF rules with Yonex shuttle corks, informed the organisers.

“The BAC has provided us $5,000 to organise the event and we decided to put the whole amount in the prize money,” said Shahi. The tournament features five events — men’s singles and doubles, women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles. “The prize money for the different categories will be divided by the BAC match referees later,” said Shahi.

“The tournament is more important for us as the points earned in this competition will affect the world rankings,” he added.

Asked about the participation of Nepali players in the event, Shahi said the association was planning to call the top 24 players for the closed-camp 15 days before the tournament.

The NBA have formed the 101-member main organising committee under Shahi.

Chief coach Uday Kumar Shrestha and his two assistants Sudip Yonjon and Kiran Thapa will prepare the Nepali team for the tournament, while Nabin Bikram Shahi has been assigned

the responsibility to look after the team’s preparation.

Meanwhile, the NBA said the association had sent four players to China for training on May 12. Shuttles Raju Paneru, Sajan Tamrakar, Nary Thapa and Sujana Shrestha along with coach Jayant Shrestha are currently under training in China and will be back by June 15 to take part in the tournament, the NBA informed.