Notun Kuri Sports set to begin nationwide search for sporting talents tomorrow 

More than 16 lac young athletes have registered for the second edition of Notun Kuri Sports, with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman set to inaugurate the nationwide competition from Khulna District Stadium on 5 November.

The opening ceremony will be simultaneously broadcast online to 503 upazilas, as the grassroots sports initiative seeks to cast its net wider in the search for the country's next generation of talent.

Youth and Sports State Minister Md Aminul Haque said the second edition would be staged across 4,599 unions, with around 1.4 million athletes expected to compete through the different stages. The competition will feature 10 disciplines, with volleyball and table tennis added to the eight sports contested in the inaugural edition.

The tournament will progress from union to upazila, district and divisional levels before the national phase is completed in Dhaka in May or June next year.

Previusly, the first edition drew around 168,000 participants. From that pool, 306 promising youngsters were selected for a 40-day residential camp at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP), after which 40 athletes were chosen for long-term training and education at the institution.

Aminul said preparations for the third edition would begin immediately after the second, underlining the government's ambition to make talent identification and development a year-round process.