Curtain rises today

The curtain on the 12th South Asian Games (SAG), known as the South Asian Olympics, rises today at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium in Sarusajai Sports Complex in Guwahati, with a view to boosting team spirit and amiable relationship among the countries of the region.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to declare the 12-day event, being co-hosted by two northeastern cities, open after six years since the Dhaka Games in 2010, in Guwahati while the following day another opening ceremony will be held in Shillong, a city in Meghaylaya which is 100 km south of Guwahati.

India are set to host the event for the third time to equal with Bangladesh, which is so far the only country to have hosted it three times. India had earlier staged the games in 1987 in Kolkata and in 1995 in Madras.

It is also the first time that two Indian northeastern cities are staging the region's biggest sports carnival after Guwahati hosted the national games in 2006. Both cities are ready to host the eight-nation event in 13 different venues, out of which nine venues in Guwahati will stage 16 disciplines while four venues in Shillong will stage seven disciplines.

There seems to be much fanfare surrounding the Games in Guwahati, the largest city in Assam. Entering the city, one can see makeshift gates -- not unlike the ones that are constructed in Bangladesh to mark special occasions -- bearing banners pronouncing the arrival of the Games. Streetlights on city roads are similarly adorned, with multicoloured decorative lights lending additional festivity. Public interest in the Games also seem to be high, with many willingly forking out the 150 rupees for admission to the opening ceremony. There is also the presence of hiked up security that accompanies the visit of a Premier.

More than 2500 athletes from eight countries will be vying for 228 gold medals, the highest number of gold medals in the history of the biennial games. However, the 12th edition will have the joint-highest number of disciplines (23), but the games have lost a bit of its old allure as organisers dropped cricket as well as golf and karate.

The 12th SA Games is however called the 'most gender equal' games as all 23 disciplines will have events for both men and women and approximately half of the participating athletes are female. India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh will have more than 100 female athletes while Nepal and Maldives will field more female athletes than male.

Although the games will be inaugurated in the afternoon in Guwahati, the women's football event will get underway in the morning in Shillong where Bangladesh national women's team will begin their campaign against last edition's runners-up Nepal at the JLN Stadium at 10:00pm (BST). Maldives and Sri Lanka will lock horns in the following match at the same venue. Volleyball and archery events are also supposed to get underway in two different cities today.

India (900 gold from previous 11 editions, 645 more than second-placed Pakistan) have been the dominant power in the 33-year journey of the games as they never finished second in the medals table despite having taken the event lightly by sending second-category athletes.

This time, however, the Indian authorities seem more serious and the high-ups repeatedly warned the national sports federations to form their squads with the best athletes. That effort saw five-time World champion and Olympic bronze-medal winning boxer Mary Com included in the women's boxing team.

“We wrote to the national sports federations with abundant caution. We tried to impress upon the federations to field balanced teams. Otherwise you may find that even in SAG we have come second and there will be a lot of hue and cry,” sports secretary Rajib Yadav's statement reflected how hosts India are serious about the Games.

Out of 23 disciplines, Bangladesh will be competing in 22 -- athletics, basketball, cycling, football, handball, hockey, kabaddi, kho kho, shooting, squash, swimming, tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, archery, badminton, boxing, table tennis, taekwondo and wushu. Bangladesh won 18 gold, 24 silver and 55 bronze medals in the last edition.