Sports activities across the province have been affected by the failure to appoint a member secretary to the Koshi Province Sports Development Board for the last 7 months.

The term of the board's member secretary Krishna Basnet ended on Bhadra 25. Since then, no member secretary has been appointed. Due to political division and party interests, the board is without leadership, and regular work and district and province-level competitions are in confusion.

Various local levels in the province have already selected players for the 'President's Running Shield' competition from the school level. However, the district's selection process has not been able to move forward due to the board's lack of leadership.

The selection process has stalled as the board has not been able to release the budget allocated for district selection. This has prevented thousands of players from getting the opportunity, said Anuradha Thapa, former chairman of the Sunsari District Sports Development Committee. Thapa says, ‘With the District Sports Development Committee chairpersons who should be appointed in all 14 districts of the province through the board not being appointed, sports activities that should be done at the district level are at a standstill. The players have suffered the brunt of this.’

With only 2 and a half months left for the end of the current fiscal year, the risk of freezing the budget allocated for various sports has increased. In the past, the practice of organizing competitions in the rainy season towards the end of the fiscal year to meet the budget and limiting the competition to a formality has increased this year as well.

With the board lacking leadership, preparations for the upcoming 10th National Games have also been affected. Usually, training, selection and preparation are intensified at the provincial level before the national competition. However, due to the lack of leadership in Koshi Province, all those processes are at a standstill. Sports workers are concerned that the overall performance of the province will be weak as before due to the lack of timely preparations.

The Gold Cup and other competitions to be held in various cities of the province have also been affected due to the lack of budget. The organizers are in financial crisis due to the lack of grants distributed through the board. The Budhasubba Gold Cup and Jhapa Gold Cup, which were held last Magh, have not yet received the support amount due from the board. Some competitions have been postponed, while some organizers have complained that they are forced to finance the program from private sources.

According to Dharan Football Club President Pratap Tamang, even though the Budhasubba Gold Cup ended in the last week of Magh and all the documents have been submitted, the board has not yet released the 1 million rupees that should have been released as the member secretary has not been appointed. The board had allocated a budget of 1 million rupees each to provide grants to Budhasubba, Virat Gold Cup, Jhapa Gold Cup and Itahari Gold Cup. Even though all four competitions have been completed, the clubs concerned have not been able to receive the support amount.

The main reason for the delay in the appointment of member secretaries is seen as political wrangling. The appointment process has not progressed due to the lack of agreement between the ruling parties on the division of roles. Stakeholders allege that the decision-making process is being delayed due to factional interests within the UML, which has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Development in the provincial government.