Nepal Sports Journalists Forum

Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) announced seven nominees for the NSJF Pulsar Popular Player of the Year (PoY) award on Wednesday.

The awards ceremony, which will also consist six other awards, will be held on September 10 amidst a function in the capital.

The popular player of the year awardee will be selected through the SMS voting. The users of Nepal Telecom and Spice Nepal mobiles can vote, according to NSJF. The nominee are Rakesh Shrestha and Bikash Malla of football, Binod Das of cricket, Karisma Karki of swimming, Manish Hamal of chess, Pramila Rijal of athletics and Manju Gurung of volleyball.

Top from left: Manish Hamal, Binod Das, Rakesh Shrestha, Bikash Malla
Bottom from left: Pramila Rijal, Manju Gurung and Karishma Karki.

The awardee will receive a cash prize of Rs 25,000, a Samsung camera, gift hamper from Surya Nepal and a carpet from Deepak Harsha Bajracharya.

The voting opened on Wednesday and will run until September 9.

“The nominees are already the winners as they are selected from among the players who performed well last year,” NSJF president Niranjan Rajbanshi said speaking on the occasion.

Last year, when NSJF introduced the award, ace football striker Jumanu Rai of Nepal Police bagged the award securing 68,682 out of 149,000 votes.

Five of the nominees attended the ceremony to announce the nominees.

Rakesh is the skipper of national football squad and Nepal Police Club. He is known as the reliable defender of the national squad and had played an important role in Nepal´s victory in the Prime Minister Cup Football Tournament this year.

Bikash is the national goalkeeper and skipper of Nepal Army Club. He was the key member of Manang Marsyangdi Club, the national league winner of 2062 before he joined the army.

Cricketer Binod is the national team captain as well as a cricket activist. He was the key player of the Nepali squad that gained third place in the ACC Trophy and ICC Cricket Division V.

Aqua queen Karishma is a rising star in the Nepali sports arena. She set a new record in the Fifth National Games winning 12 gold medals surpassing previous record of nine golds by Nayana Shakya in fourth National games. She won gold in all 12 events she participated in.

Manish is the first Nepali player to bag the FIDE Master title. He accumulated 6.5 points in the Olympiad of Chess held in Germany last year.

Athlete Pramila designated policewomen in the Armed Police Force team, won three gold medals in the Fifth National Games and set a national record in women´s 400 m race timing 59.60 seconds. She won gold in 100m, 200m and 400m race and in long jump, 4×100m relay and in 4×400m relay she satisfied with silver.

Manju Gurung from Pokhara is a national volleyball player. Besides this, she is also a good athlete and basketball player. She was the key player of the national volleyball squad which won bronze in the 10th South Asian Games held at Colombo, Sri Lanka in 2006.

(From Republica)

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4. Nominees for popular player of the year announced (The Rising Nepal)

Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) signed sponsorship deal with Golchha Organization for the Player of the Year Awards on Tuesday.

NSJF president Nirajan Rajbanshi and Golchha Organization director Shekhar Golchha signed the agreement to make Bajaj Pulsar, the Indian motorbike, the main sponsor of the top sports awards of the country.

“The sponsorship is more for the development of sports than our business motive,” Golchha said during the signing ceremony. “At the present situation of the country, we believe sports could be the uniting factor for all Nepalis.”

The deal, worth Rs. 550,000 in cash and kinds, is valid for a year. Golchhan Organization will provide Rs. 400,000 cash along with nine Samsung digital cameras for awardees and will also support NJSF in promotional materials.

The event is set for September 10 at the Rastriya Nachghar.

“NSJF thanks Golchha Organization for being a part of most-awaited awards,” NSJF president Rajbanshi said adding that the award was incepted to provide players with the honor so to help them perform better.

Rajbanshi also added that NSJF is finalizing co-sponsorship deals with Surya Nepal and ISME for the awards.

“We are organizing the event on September 10, marking the anniversary of the forum,” Hemanta Kafle, the NSJF general secretary, said.

There will be seven categories for awards: player of the year male, female and youth, popular player of the year, coach of the year, special award and lifetime achievement award.

According to NSJF, the male, female and popular player of the year will receive a trophy and cash prize of Rs. 25,000 each while other winners will receive Rs 15,000 each.

“Popular player of the year will be selected through sms voting that will open next week,” Kafle added.

NSJF has constituted 11 committees for the successful organization of the event.

“We have expected the total budget of the program will be Rs. 1.1m,” Kafle said adding that the program has grown over the year. The event will be eighth award ceremony.

Also present on the occasion were NSJF first vice-president Rajendra Gyawali, vice-presidents Roshan Singh Raut and Dhruba Tuladhar and secretary Mahesh Acharya.

Last year, Deepak Bista and Nary Thapa won the top awards. Other winners were former CAN president Jaya Kumar Nath Shah, Sahara Club of Pokhara, cricketer Paras Khadka, footballer Jumanu Rai and football coach Birat Krishna Shrestha.