Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 6:

Nepal Asian Satellite Badminton Championship 2005, under the auspices of Nepal Badminton Association, is all set to begin at newly-installed mat here at the National Sports Council covered Hall from Tuesday. The five-day international tournament, under the sponsorship of Samsung marketed by Golchha Organisation, features 31 players — 15 from Nepal, six from Pakistan, two from India, and four each from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The players will vie for five titles — Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. No 1 Pashupati Paneru leads the pack among Nepali conterndors. Others in the team are Pankaj Chand, Indra Maheta, Ram Singh Chaudhary, Anil Kumar Lakhe, Prajwol

Jung Rana, Nawaraj Joshi, Bharat Shrestha, Sumina Shrestha, Puja Shrestha, Sarah Devi Tamang, Samjhana Khaling, Bina Tulachan, Sujana Shrestha and Saraswoti Shakya. Other members of the home team are Keshab Jung Karki (manager), Udaya Kumar Shrestha (chief coach), Kiran Thapa and Mahendra Lal Shrestha (men’s coaches), and Rajani Shrestha and Shanti Devi Manandhar (women’s coaches).

Morang Auto Works, Rashtriya Banijya Bank, Surya Nepal, San Miguel, Mayos of Himalayan Snax and Noodles, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force are the co-sponsors. The NBA have also formed a main organising committee under the chairmanship of NBA president Prakash Bahadur Shahi.

OTHER TEAMS — INDIA: Utsav Mishra, Santosh Pandey.

PAKISTAN: Wajid Ali, Ahsan Qamar, Ahmed Waqar, Tahir Ishaq, Akram Ayesha, Sara Khan, Usman Afridi (manager). SRI LANKA: Duminda Jayakody, Thushara Ediresinghe, Renu Chandrika De Silva, Thilini Jaya, Kamal Gamlath (coach), Palitha Hettiarechchi (manager). BANGLADESH: Moktar Hossain, Enayet Ullah Khan, Aysha Khatun Nuri, Konica Rani Adhikary, Md Gulam Aziz (coach), SK Nur Islam (manager).