Sri Lanka, host of next year’s 10th South Asian Federation Games, has proposed cricket and netball be included in the biennial event, an official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press Friday.
“The (Sri Lankan) prime minister is very enthusiastic on cricket being introduced, and we have asked the countries to discuss with their respective cricket boards and come back to us,” said Hemasiri Fernando, president of South Asia Olympic Council. “The Asian Netball Federation has supported our proposal to have netball, along with India, Maldives and Bangladesh.”
Cricket has millions of ardent fans in the region, which comprises four test playing nations _ India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and an associate member – Nepal and three affiliate nations Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives.
Archery, wushu, judo and road cycling are four events added to next year’s games, in addition to 15 events held in the previous edition, Fernando said. Sri Lanka’s National Olympic Committee hopes to spend about 600 million rupees (US$5.8 million, euro 4.7 million) for the games to be held for 10 days starting Aug. 15.
“We want to make our maximum effort to make this the grandest ever event in the country,” The Island newspaper quoted Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse as saying on Friday.
The ninth edition concluded in Pakistan in March after the event had been postponed for more than three years because of security fears after the Sept. 11 attacks on America, a political unrest between India and Pakistan in 2002, and finally the Iraq war in 2003.
Sri Lanka previously hosted the South Asian games in 1991 and the Asian Athletic Championship in 2002.