Lalitpur, January 19:

National Sports Council categorised 37 sports disciplines under five sections and also announced the Vision Mission 2020 here at a press meet today.

“We felt the need to categorise the sports under different sections to make our goals and objectives clear for the better performance in the future,” said NSC member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha. “The sports sector in our country has become a ship without compass and if we are to lead the sports to right direction, we need concrete plans and programmes,” he added.

As per the report — prepared by consultants Biz Mantra and HURDEC and sanctioned by the NSC’s 58th board meeting on Thursday — nine sports fall under Wider Participation (sports that mobilise the mass and are popular among the major parts of the Nepali population), 10 under National Pride (sports that have earned international recognition and that might bring more medals and pride in near future), one under Traditional Identity (sports that are played by the different indigenous people), four under Adventure/Tourism (sports that can generate revenue for the country and that can engage people with high adventure appetite) and 13 under Other Potential (sports that are played in selected sub-group of the society, have poor infrastructure in non-urban areas, and are expensive).

Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Football, Gymnastics, Kabaddi, Karate (non-official), Table Tennis and Volleyball are categorised under the Wider Participation. Athletics, Boxing, Cricket, Judo, Karate (official), Shooting, Taekwondo, Weight-Lifting, Wrestling and Wushu have been put under National Pride, while Bagh-chal is the only sport under Traditional Identity category.

Four sports — Rafting, Golf, Mountain Bike and Ski — came under Adventure/Tourism, whereas Archery, Billiards/ Snooker/Pool, Bridge, Handball, Hockey, Kho Kho, Lawn Tennis, Rugby, Ten Pin Bowling, Body Building, Soft Tennis, Squash and Swimming are put under Other Potentials.

Under the Vision Mission Strategy 2020, the NSC have planned to claim third position at the South Asian Games by 2012; finish within 25th position at the Asian Games by 2014 and win gold medal at the Olympics by 2020. The NSC also aim to involve 30 per cent schools in sports activities by 2012, 60 per cent by 2014 and prepare a club each in every VDC and Ward by 2020.

For the Mission 2020, the NSC announced six-point objectives — prepare favourable environment; organise regular competitions; develop all sports; strengthen sports-related people; build infrastructure; and organisational management. NOC general secretary Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, taekwondo player Deepak Bista and NSC department chief Partha Sarathi Sen

Gupta and NSC vice president Sita Ram Maskey also expressed their views.