The Bangladesh Olympic Association (BOA) has announced that the country will participate in 25 of the 28 disciplines scheduled for the 14th South Asian (SA) Games, set to take place from January 23 to 31 across three cities in Pakistan.

Of the 25 disciplines, 17 are individual sports: athletics, archery, badminton, boxing, fencing, golf, judo, karate, shooting, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, swimming, weightlifting, wrestling, and wushu. The remaining eight are team events: basketball, cricket, hockey, football, handball, kabaddi, rugby, and volleyball.

BOA has decided not to compete in billiards and snooker, triathlon, and rowing.

In preparation for the Games, BOA convened a meeting with officials from the 17 individual sports federations to assess current levels of preparation, training requirements, and future plans. Most federations expressed the need for foreign coaches to enhance their athletes' performance at the regional competition.

Bangladesh achieved its best-ever performance at the SA Games in 2019, claiming 20 gold medals in Kathmandu, Nepal.

"We sat together to know about our expectation. We met with 17 federation officials whom with we exchanged views and we will now sit with the federation officials of team games on April 13 before placing the outcomes of these meeting at the April 23 BOA executive committee meeting," BOA director secretary Brigadier general (rtd) ABM Shefaul Kabir told the reporters after the meeting with the federations on Thursday.

Kabir informed that several federations wanted to bring foreign coaches, while a few wanted to train aboard and demanded the financial assistance from BOA.