Sepak Takraw inspires lighter moments in Goa assembly

PANAJI - Sepak Takraw, an exciting sport of Malay origin that is an athletic mix between football and volleyball, inspired some hilarious moments in the Goa legislative assembly Friday.

Opposition and ruling benches together spilled into peals of laughter after the sports minister Manohar Azgaonkar during Question Hour, struggled pronouncing ‘S.E.P.A.K T.E.K.R.A.W’, a word which is etymologically southeast Asian in origin.

Azgaonkar was responding to a question from an opposition legislator Francis D’Souza on the preparedness of the state government vis-a-vis the National Games which were scheduled in Ranchi from March 12.

“The National Games are (now) expected to be held in Goa in 2014,” Azgaonkar told the House, even as the opposition claimed that the government was slack in creating infrastructure for the event.

Azgaonkar also said, that one of the 12 centres being developed for hosting the National Games, the at Quepem sub district (in South Goa), where the sepak takraw event would be hosted and it was nearing completion. The House rocked with laughter, the moment the minister said ’sepak tekraw’ with considerable difficulty.

Also called as kick-volleyball, the game of sepak takraw has opposing teams on either sides of the net, using not their hands, but only their feet, knee, chest and head to toss, lob or smash a ball made of the rattan palm into the opponent’s court.

It is a popular sport in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines.

–Indo Asian News Service