Both women's and men's teams of Nepal will participate in the first Kho-Kho World Cup to be held in New Delhi, India. The 43-member Nepalese team will go to New Delhi on Saturday. 15-15 male/female players from Nepal, two coaches and one assistant coach will participate in the competition, which will be held from December 29 to January 6.

Kho Kho is a famous traditional game of India. Therefore, the first World Cup is being organized in Indian soil. This first edition of the World Cup will feature 20 men's and 19 women's nations.

Hemraj Paneru (captain), Janak Chand, Yaman Puri, Ved Bahadur Wali, Jhalak Bik, Vikaral Singh Ratgaia, Vishal Tharu, Rajan Bal, Jogendra Rana, Sameer Chand, Vishwas Chaudhary, Suraj Pujara, Rohit Kumar Burma of the Nepali men's team playing in the World Cup. , Bharat Saru, Ganesh Vishwakarma. Bikkiraj Maharjan is the head coach, Camuddin Mansoor is the assistant coach and Chhatra Bahadur Shahi is the team manager.

Nepali women's team players include Saraswati Kadayat (Captain), Manmati Dhami, Deepakumari Bick, Khushbu Rana, Varsha Pandit, Geeta Chaudhary, Pooja Od, Asha Tharu, Deepa Bick, Nisha Shahi, Karmakumari Shahi, Kanchan Chaudhary, Poonam Tharu , Remembrance Bick and Anisha Gole. Lakshminarayan Baidya is the head coach, Usha Kavar Magar is the assistant coach and Krishna Paneru is the manager. 

Chef The Mission has Sushilman Vyanjankar, Kapaldev Yadav as official, Dilip Kumar Maharjan, Dev Maharjan, Rajkumar Chaudhary and Dhirendra Kumar Yadav as judges. Shankar Maharjan, general secretary of Nepal Kho Kho Sangh, is on the jury. 

On the men's side, hosts India, along with Nepal, Peru, Brazil and Bhutan are in Group 'A'. Group 'B' has South Africa, Ghana, Argentina, Netherlands and Iran, Group 'C' has Bangladesh, South Korea, USA and Poland and Group 'D' has England, Germany, Malaysia, Australia and Kenya. 

For women, Nepal has been placed in Group 'C'. Nepal will play against Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Germany and Bangladesh. Iran, Malaysia, South Korea along with India are in Group 'A', England, Australia, Kenya, Uganda and Netherlands are in Group 'B' and South Africa, New Zealand, Poland, Peru and Indonesia are in Group 'C'. 

The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals after playing against each other in the group stage for both men and women. Nepalese players were kept in closed training for a month to play in the World Cup. They trained at the Covered Hall in Kirtipur. Pradeep Maharjan, president of the Nepal Kho-Kho Association, informed that the same 15-member team was selected from both sides. 

Both the teams are excited for the World Cup as they have won medals in the 12th and 13th South Asian Games. The captain of the women's team, Saraswati Kadayat, said that the target is to win at least a silver medal. She said, "We have already won medals at the South Asian level. The South Asian nation is strong in this game. We also fall into that. We have prepared for the goal of winning a medal in the first edition of the World Cup.' 

Women's Kho Kho won the silver medal in the 13th SAG held on home soil in 2019. Nepal lost the gold by losing to India with a score of 17-5. 

On the men's side, Nepal was deprived of reaching the final after losing to Bangladesh by a narrow score of 24-23 in the 13th match. Nepal won bronze by defeating Sri Lanka 17-7. India won the gold by defeating Bangladesh. In 2016, the 12th SAG held in Guwahati, Nepal's women's and men's teams both won bronze. While India won both golds on this green, Bangladesh was limited to silver.

Hemraj Paneru, the captain of the Nepali men's team, also says that Nepal's goal is a medal. After being interviewed by the member-secretary of the National Sports Council, Tanklal Ghising, he said, "Besides the experience of winning international medals, we are the strongest team in South Asia after India and Bangladesh, so our goal is a medal." We are playing the World Cup with that goal in mind.