Volleyball star Usha Bhandari and cricketer Aasif Sheikh were among the five nominees of peoples’ choice award under the annual Pulsar Sports Award to be held on March 7.

Apart from the duo, tennis player Abhilasha Bista, footballer Anjan Bista and swimmer Duana Lama were the other nominees for the Award ceremony to take place at the Nepal Academy Hall in Kathmandu.

The winners will be picked on the basis of eSewa votes, Facebook likes and points allocated by head coaches of sports associations affiliated with the Nepal Olympic Committee and members of the Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF), the organisers of the event.

The eSewa votes will have 50 percent weightage, Facebook likes 25 percent and the points allocated by coaches and NSJF members will have 12.5 percent weightage each, said Durga Nath Subedi, president of NSJF.

Anjan Khadka, NSJF Secretary and coordinator of the players’ selection committee, said that the nominations were made on the basis of the player’s performance along with their popularity in the last and current year. The winner among them wins a Pulsar two-wheeler besides gift hampers.

Table tennis player Elina Maharjan was the winner of the last edition of peoples’ choice award.

Bhandari, one of the key players of the national volleyball squad, played an influential role during Nepal’s run to silver medal in 2019 South Asian Games (SAG). The 17-year-old was also part of the team that claimed the title of AVC Asian Central Zone Volleyball in December 2021.

Bhandari, who plays for Nepal Police Club, has won multiple domestic titles with the departmental team and also played professional volleyball in Maldives last year. She was declared the best player in the NVA National Women’s Club Volleyball Championship held recently in Kathmandu.

“To be nominated in this category of award is a big opportunity for players and I am elated to be one of the nominees of the prestigious award ceremony,” Bhandari said at the nominees announcement ceremony.

The 21-year-old cricketer Sheikh won the ICC Spirit of Cricket in January becoming the first player of Nepal to receive such accolade. He also made a sensational debut in Twenty20 International for Nepal scoring an unbeaten half century against the Netherlands. He shared a 116-run partnership for the opening wicket, the highest for first wicket, for Nepal.

He is also the third highest scorer for Nepal in the One-Day International with 665 runs to his name that includes five half centuries in 23 games. He has also set the highest-run partnership for the first and second wicket in ODI—114 with Bhurtel against Oman for first and 122 with Gyanendra Malla against the United Arab Emirates for the second wicket.

He also cracked 110 runs against Kenya in the ODI match and was named the player-of-the-series in the series.

“I would like to thank everyone for the nomination,” Sheikh said. “Cricket is a gentleman’s game and do love cricket.”

Tennis player Abhilasha, footballer Anjan and swimmer Duana Lama did not attend the announcement ceremony as they are all outside the country.

Abhilasha is currently the top ranked woman player of the country and is playing professional tennis under the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit. She is the only Nepali player to play professional games.

She clinched golds in all four events she played at the Ninth National Games last year in Pokhara. She secured women’s doubles gold in the ITF World Rankings in Pokhara and silver medal in ITF World Ranking in Pakistan.

Footballer Anjan scored a hat-trick against Bangladesh in an international friendly last year, becoming the sixth Nepali player to achieve such a feat. He has scored 11 goals for the national team and is only two goals shy of all-time leading scorer Hari Khadka and Nirajan Rayamajhi.

He scored a decisive goal against Pakistan in an international friendly for Nepal as they beat the opponents for the first time in 14 years. He was also on the score sheet against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the 13th SAG and is currently playing professional football with I-League side Mumbai Kenkre in India.

Swimmer Lama won nine golds and a silver, highest by an individual player, in the Ninth National Games in Pokhara last year. She also earned two silver and three bronze medals in the 13th SAG. She has participated in various international swimming meets including the FIFA World Championship in Hungary and China, among others.

Sportspersons will be honoured in nine different categories—player of the year male, female, coach, youth, special award, lifetime achievement award, para-athlete honour and special award. A sports journalist from Asia will be given an Asian sports journalists award.

The winners of the male, female, coach, youth and people’s choice awards will be presented with Pulsar two wheelers while the winners of the other categories, except for the journalist award, will get a purse of Rs50,000.

Meanwhile, NSJF also inked a voting partnership deal with online payment gateway eSewa for two years before unveiling the nominations for people’s choice award. NSJF president Subedi and eSewa’s Head of Business Development Ashish Prasai inked the deal.