Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) on Sunday officially finalised the limit of players in 27 games of the 13th South Asian Games (SAG).

Nepal is all set to host the biennial event for the third time in Pokhara and Kathmandu from March 9 to 18. NOC President Jeevan Ram Shrestha also formally announced the inclusion of cricket and paragliding in the regional sports extravaganza to be participated by eight South Asian countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Cricket and paragliding were added in the list of 25 games approved earlier during a meeting of South Asian Olympic Council (SAOC) on Saturday in Kathmandu. While cricket returns to the SA Games after eight years, paragliding has been included for the first time. Cricket was included for the first time in 2010.

“The meeting unanimously decided to add cricket and paragliding,” said Shrestha adding that those games were added after holding extensive discussions with various sports associations.  “Cricket is an emerging and a popular game in the country while paragliding could be developed as a key attraction for tourism in the country,” Shrestha said.

Swimming have the highest 20 events followed by 19 in athletics. But any event that failed to reach a minimum of four teams will be scrapped. Shrestha also said that an event could also be scrapped if they technically do not match the standard norms set by their international governing body.

Besides athletics and swimming, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, fencing, football, golf, handball, judo, kabaddi, karate, paragliding, kho kho, shooting, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and wushu are included in the game. All 27 events will have competitions in both men’s and women’s categories.

A team can field maximum of 627 players for the Games. Men’s football and cricket will be the U-23 tournaments while there will be no age bar in the women’s football and cricket.Each team in men’s football and cricket, however, will be allowed to field three over-aged players as as per the international practice.

The NOC president said the Games will be held on scheduled though a large portion of infrastructure upgradation and renovation at Dasharath Stadium is yet to finish. “We have been in regular touch with the concerned stakeholders. Hopefully will be in right path in time of the regional games,” added Shrestha.