Sports
Bangladeshi trio roped in for Nepali league
Nepal’s first ever home and away Nepal Basketball League continued to lure hoopsters from across the South Asian region after the departmental side Nepal Police Club confirmed the arrival of Bangladeshi national team trio for the second edition of the tournament.Adarsha Dhakal
Nepal’s first ever home and away Nepal Basketball League continued to lure hoopsters from across the South Asian region after the departmental side Nepal Police Club confirmed the arrival of Bangladeshi national team trio for the second edition of the tournament.
Bangladeshi national players Shawn Chowdhury, Mohammad Khaled Mahmud Akash and Shahinur Rahman Sajib will be playing for the Police team which includes a majority of players who represented Bishal Milan Kendra in the first edition of the tournament. Chowdhury also played for BMK in the last edition.
NPC currently have four points in the League table with two victories from three matches. The Bangladeshi trio will join the team from Sunday. Chowdhury is a veteran with the Bangladeshi national team having played his first game for the country in 2009. Akash was called-up for the national team in 2011 and Sajib first represented Bangladesh in 2016.
NPC are also preparing to rope in another Bengali player Mithun Kumar Biswas who will join the squad from May 10. The League regulations allows each team to have a maximum of four foreign recruits with two allowed to take the court at once.
Last year, only one foreign player was allowed to take to the court.
NPC is the second team to recruit international player in the League with defending champions Golden Gate International already fielding Indian player Yogesh Kanderiya in the last two matches. Nepal Basketball League coordinator Namit Bahadur Thapa said Nepali basketball was to benefit with the inclusion of international players in the League.
“We are really pleased that the League is enticing quite a few number of international players. This will definitely raise the standard of Nepali basketball because it is certain to give a good exposure to our youngsters and the level of competition will also go higher,” Thapa told the Post on Saturday.
NBL is the biggest and longest basketball league of the country which runs for 55 days with 56 days alone in the league matches. The top four teams out of eight will qualify for the playoffs after the completion of double round robin league.
Khatri posts third 20-plus score; Police open account
Robin Khatri gave his third consecutive man-of-the-match performance, this time with a double-double, leading Tribhuvan Army Club to their fourth win in a row in the Nepal Basketball League on Saturday.
At their home court in Bhadrakali, the Armymen defeated Budhanilkantha Basketball Club 86-51 to stay at the top spot of the eight-team league with eight points. Army and Times International Club are the only two unbeaten sides in the tournament with the latter sitting second with six points from three matches.
Budhanilkantha have now gone three consecutive matches without a victory after defeating Kirtipur Basketball Club on April 28 in their tournament opener. The game initially looked even when they trailed Army by just four points (17-21) in the first quarter. Army then began to take control of the game in the second quarter leading 16-9.
Another 20-16 lead in the third quarter handed Army a 15-point lead heading into the decider and the departmental giants sealed the victory netting 29 to that of nine from Budhanilkantha in the final period. Khatri went on to post his third consecutive 20 plus scored rolling 28 points and took 11 assists. He also had seven rebounds.
Nepal Police Club, meanwhile, opened victory account in their third match sweeping aside South Siders Basketball Club 78-58 at their home court in Maharajgunj. Bikash Gurung inspired NPC to their first win scoring 25 points. He also had seven rebounds and three assists.
The Policemen raced to a 14-point (26-12) lead in the first quarter before Siders bounced back in the game leading the second quarter 19-7. NPC laid the foundation for victory in the third quarter which they took 25-14 and a 20-13 lead in the final quarter handed them a maiden win.
Times will play away to Golden Gate International Club on Sunday in their May 1 game that was called off due to rain and thunderstorm. Times were leading 54-37 with 4:11 minutes remaining in the third quarter before the game was called. The match will resume from the same point.