From within a large number of heartbreaking news, some good news were coming off the field of cricket. Nepal did well in many tournaments and dreamt of representing the country in the 2007 World Cup. The dream broke down today when Nepal lost to Fiji in the semifinal of the World Cup Qualifying Series Division II in Malaysia. I am sad – in fact very, very sad.
As a reporter, I have closely followed Nepal’s cricket since 1998 and for my love of the game, I voluntarily established a cricket site in early 2001. The site is so far the only source of all cricketing news of Nepal and is very popular. For so many years, I have been made happy and all of a sudden, I feel sad. It isn’t that if Nepal had won the match, we would qualify for the World Cup. The road ahead was still very difficult, but nevertheless we would have hopes.
What went wrong? For the sake of blame, I can blame everybody.
Blame players, because they have played so many cricket that they should have by now learnt of playing sensibly.
Blame journalists, perhaps they were exaggerating the success of cricket.
Blame me and thousands of fans, because we were probably hoping a little more.
Blame Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN), because they brought no program with vision of the World Cup despite their president Jai Kumar Nath Shah reiterating about Nepal’s chances to qualify for World Cup for hundreds of time since 2000.
But I think, journalists and fans are outsiders. So the blame should go to players and CAN.
There were times when cricketers played for love of game. I vividly remembered the day when Pawan Agrawal (former captain) told me how difficult it was for them to make it to 1996 ACC Trophy, Nepal’s first international participation. Before that too, many people invested their money to cricket, to send team around and to organize tournaments.
Time changed. Now there is money in cricket. Players if they became a regular member of cricket team earn good money (not comparing with foreign cricketers), and they are heroes covered by newspaper and magazines. But with all that, commitment and focus to the game is decreasing.
But players should only take 25 per cent of blame for not displaying the performance. The remaining blame should go to CAN.
‘Talking big, and doing nothing’ is CAN’s policy so far. We knew our batting is weak 10 years ago, but did nothing to improve on that. Even when the players are competing in three-day games, we are organizing nothing more than one-day games (that would rarely be 50-over-innings). How can the players learn to play patiently without experience of that in domestic front? Did CAN think about it?
And, there are proved stories of corruption – while buying the rollers. Even CAN president Jai Kumar Nath Shah admitted that in a TV show and said he knew nothing – that’s all done by his general secretary and treasurer. But what happened to the defaulters? Why there is no action?
Moreover, everybody related to cricket say even today that Binaya Pandey was good manager and when he was in CAN as the powerful general secretary, he did many good things. Why today he is outside? For the sake of post, he is the vice-president of CAN, but we all know, he is toothless in terms of running CAN.
What’s next?
Obviously as a fan, I would look forward for 2011 World Cup – I don’t know if I would lose my love to the game by then. CAN should also work for that – WORK not think and speak.
Let’s also hope that CAN will be run by some visionary people. And that there will be no more such heartbreaks.
