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Basketball court membership blues

5 December 2008

There are no takers for membership of the swimming pool basketball court even though the committee had announced a nuanced timing schedule in September.

Basketball players seem to prefer to pay the one-time entry fee of Nu 10 for players below the age of 24 and Nu 20 for older players.

Nawang Penjor, a civil servant, said, “It is better to pay Nu 20 for a whole day than paying Nu 300 a month or Nu 1,300 a year since most of the time we are engaged in our work”.

The membership cost for an adult is fixed at Nu 300 for a month and Nu 1,800 for a year. For players below the age of 24, the rate is Nu 150 for a month and Nu 800 for a year.

The committee had introduced different timings for female and male players according to age groups.

“We used to let the males in as spectators during the female timing but later we found the males playing with the females,” said Maheshwar Chettri, the basketball court In-charge. “So now we don’t let males enter even as spectators,” he said.

Tawchu, the court manager, said, “We are hoping that the timing is fair for all but we still don’t have a single membership registered.” The basketball court officials are confident that the number of players coming to the court will increase during the school vacation.

Karma Eden, a class XII student of of Yangchenphug Higher Secondary School, said, “I do not visit the court right now due to exams but I will resume immediately when it is over”.

Karma is happy with the different timings for different genders. “We hardly got to play before since the court was mostly occupied by male players. However the timing is still biased for boys,” she said.

The court is open to girls on Wednesdays and Sundays while the boys have it for the rest of the week. It is closed every Monday.

The court is still visited by avid basketball players. Lekzin T Dorji, who is a class XI student in Ugyen Academy, is a regular visitor. She says cheerfully, “Right now we are practicing for the tournament and we hope more girls will join us”.

The court opens at 1:00 pm till 8:00 pm on weekdays and from 1:00 pm till 8:00 pm on the weekends. The charge for hiring the basketball court for one day is Nu 1,500.

By Sonam Rinchen

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under Sports 

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