The government on Thursday decided to reward various sports persons with cash prizes.

A Cabinet meeting approved the proposal of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to award the sportspersons with cash prizes.

A total Rs29.71 million will be provided to various sports persons, coaches and team officials for their outstanding achievements in recent years, of which over Rs20.47 million will go to cricket—a sport that has attained remarkable achievements in international arenas in recent years.

The 15 members of the national men’s cricket team that qualified for the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will be rewarded with Rs1.3 million each.

Nepal secured their ticket to the 2024 T20 World Cup after reaching the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier in November last year.

The T20 World Cup is set to take place in the West Indies and the United States next month.

Nepal will begin their World Cup campaign with a match against the Netherlands on June 4.

It will be Nepal’s only second appearance at a World Cup and a first since World T20 in Bangladesh in 2014.

Men’s cricket team head coach Monty Desai will earn Rs390,000, while team manager Suman Raj Karki, assistant coach Basanta Shahi and physiotherapist Bikram Neupane will get Rs195,000 each.

Karateka Arika Gurung, who won a historic silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China in October last year, will be rewarded with Rs1.95 million rupees.

Despite losing to Sofya Berultseva of Kazakhstan 3-0 in the women’s 68kg kumite gold medal bout, Gurung had given Nepal its only third ever silver medal at the Asian Games after 25 years. Sabita Rajbhandari had won Nepal’s first Asiad silver in taekwondo in the 13th Asian Games held in Thailand in 1998. Nepali paragliding team won a silver in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

Gurung’s medal was also the only silver medal Nepal won in the 19th Asian Games. She had also become the first Nepali karateka to win a silver medal in the history of Asian Games.

Karate head coach Kushal Shrestha will get Rs234,000, while assistant coaches Chhori Dangol and Bir Krishna Shahi, and manager Nibas Gopal Baidya will bag Rs195,000 each.

The 12 players of the national women’s kabbadi team, who won bronze medal at the 2022 Asian Games, will be awarded with Rs390,000 each. The women’s kabaddi team had defeated Bangladesh 37-24 in their first group match and advanced to the semi-finals as Group B runners-up, securing their maiden medal in their first ever appearance in the kabaddi competition.

Women’s kabaddi head coach Parbati Rai will receive Rs260,000. Assistant coach Bishnu Bhatta and manager Dilli Ram Kafle will get Rs130,000 each.

Palesha Goverdhan, who won a bronze at the 2022 Asian Para Games, held in Hangzhou, will get a cash prize of Rs1.3 million.

Parateakwondo player Goverdhan was the first Nepali para-athlete to win a medal in the Asian Para Games.

Goverdhan has also qualified for the 2024 Summer Paralympics to take place in Paris from August to September.

Her head coach Kabiraj Negi Lama will get Rs260,000 while team manager Ramchandra Shrestha will get Rs130,000.