Sports Story

Disconnected thoughts reflecting cricket and events surrounding the game

Cricket has long been a sport with potential but with defeats in key matches earned Nepal a nickname of chokers. The dream of playing World Cup almost forgotten, Nepal hosted World Cricket League Division 5 – a step of the World Cup qualification and won it.

Nepal almost choked again after four comprehensive wins. It did lost to USA in the last league match and hadn’t there was crowd trouble, Nepal was more likely to be out of final.

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Unruly crowd behavior! Well, many called it Kathmandu Riot. We were on the receiving side and members of the country which looked like benefitting from the situation. Whatever I told others – those not present in TU Ground – about the event, accurately, believed that I was trying to cut down badness of the events.

An American journalist who was live covering the game wrote – he felt there was police firing teargas – and everyone believed it [despite the journalist himself writing, later, that it was not true]. And, people seemed to believe 12,000 spectators invaded the ground while nobody entered the ground.

There were many who wrote as if the situation was fully intentional and calculated by spectators [the truth is even ICC was not clear on who reached the final more than half-an-hour after the completion of the match].

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I am not defending what happened at TU.

I felt sorry for Singapore too who looked like suffered most from it.

But I do not agree that Nepal’s cricket should be punished. The situation was under control within 15 minutes, not even a single person was injured, even minor. If there are thousands of people at the ground, there can be minor scuffles – always.

And, ICC is reportedly in a quandary:

As for the ICC, it is in a difficult position. If it fails to act then there is a danger it sets a precedent for crowds to disrupt matches if doing so will benefit their side. Against that, it will not want to stamp down to heavily on a country where cricket has really taken hold.

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And, ICC – the organizer of the event – became irrational a couple of time. First, they wanted media to sign a media accreditation contract that was suited when the event was sold to TV, radio and internet for live coverage. After informal/indirect request yielded nothing, we have to go formally via Nepal Sports Journalists Forum and threaten to boycott their press conference. Then they were ok and look, what coverage the event got, without anyone complaining.

The cricket rule-book say local conditions may apply; and looked like ICC had not understood the application outside the boundary.

Another time: ICC media manager disrupted an interview with Nepal’s coach Roy Dias more than half-an-hour after the conclusion of final and end of prize distribution ceremony telling us that we could only talk to him when they say ‘ok, here you go.’

Totally illogical!

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So far, Nepal had only failed to win two of the tournaments that it has hosted – the 1998 ACC Trophy and 2007 ACC U-15 Trophy when all teams – except two – were disqualified for fielding overage players.

Is there a translation for Ghar ko bagh…?

Right now, the ACC U-16 Elite Cup is going on and hopefully Nepal continue to be tiger at home.

And, hopefully, one day, Nepal will be playing in the World Cup!

When the whole state is going through the process of restructuring and every sector is being put in line with the concept of “new and prosperous” Nepal, nobody is saying anything about sports. This is, no doubt, the biggest disadvantage that the sector has for decades now. Sports are always the less priority sector for the state, and for that matter, the majority of the people as well. No decision makers – be it officials or lawmakers – are much concerned about the sector, not realizing the fact that sports could be the catalyst for glorifying the image of the country globally. Continue reading…

(That’s what you are probably thinking after the completion of the World Cup. Here is the story that I wrote for today’s The Kathmandu Post)

After 31 nights of football fever, Nepali football fans now clamor for a good night’s sleep, but they will of course find time for World Cup gossip and analysis.

Although joy over the fierce battle of the ball kept them awake most of those nights, it wasn’t easy living with sore eyes. “I watched the matches, for I enjoyed them,” athletics star Rajendra Bhandari said. “But it was tough and tiring.”

The Asian All Star gold medalist is preparing for the South Asian Games (SAG) scheduled for next month. “I would sleep well today as I don’t feel like I could train,” the Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) player added. “I couldn’t have missed it since it comes only in four years.”

The World Cup games, most of which began 45 minutes after mid-night in Nepal, even changed people’s daily schedules and their brain clock. “It was difficult to stay awake for the matches in the early stages,” Manju Lata Aryal, a BBA final semester student at Nobel Academy, said. “I felt tired in the morning, but later on it was easy to stay up for the matches but the days became tough then.”

The low turn-out for morning classes at many colleges was part of the impact of the World Cup. Students at Shepherd College of Media Technologies, Chabahil didn’t turn up Monday morning, making the day an undeclared holiday, as was the case at many other colleges.

The World Cup not only brought football, but it also brought business to many – especially shopkeepers selling jerseys. “Many would come to us requesting the printing of names and numbers on the jerseys,” Bijay Shahi of Attsh, a t-shirt house at Khichapokhari, said. “We had to work hard all day, despite the fact that we were awake in the night to watch the matches.”

For football-crazy people like Shahi, the World Cup wasn’t something to miss. “No sleep? That was fine. But missing the game was out of question,”he said.

As the mega-event is now over, the t-shirt business should see a slump, at least temporarily. “Now, we can afford to recover lost sleep,” he said.

For more hardcore fans, the end of the World Cup is just the completion of yet another event. “Now, I look forward to watching English Premier League and other leagues,” Prabin Karki, a third-year student at People’s Dental College said. “The quality of football is better in the league than in the World Cup.”

After watching the final at Basantpur, where they had put up a big projection screen, Karki was satisfied with the result. “I am happy because it was France that beat my favorite team (Brazil) in the quarters,” he added, recalling the favorite’s 1-0 loss to the eventual runner-up.

The biggest football event of the world, the World Cup, is coming and like in every other country it is gripping Nepal. Everywhere you go you will find something that would remind you of the event. Every small and big companies, shops and business is brainstorming to find out a way to cash the passion.

It was probably because television broadcasting came to Nepa during 1986 World Cup (for me 1990 World Cup was the first), a good number of Nepali are fans to Maradona, thus Argentina. So is the case with me.

I am wearing Argentine jersey for a few days now. It is an old one, from 2002 World Cup when Argentina made exit from the first round. Since a lot of people teasingly asked me to stop supporting Argentina, I printed the back of it with ‘Still Argentina Fan‘.

Yesterday, when I was returning from ATTSH where I inquired for a new jersey, a motorcyclist horned me and when I looked towards him, he thumbed up me saying ‘nice t-shirt’. It would be only natural to see a waving hand from an Argentine fan for next month with the white-blue stripes on my body.

I desperately hope Argentina will win the World Cup this time thus getting the new generation into its fandom. The next month is going to buzzing one for Nepali football fans as the World Cup will, no wonder, be the biggest talk of the town. I am eagerly awaiting for the World Cup though it would eat a lot of good night sleep.

ACC U-19 Cup Cricket Tournament, that was inaugurated today by Crown Prince Paras, is the biggest international sports event for the country. It will not only provide Nepal with a chance to prove a successful hosts but also gives cricket lovers an unique chance to witness Nepali players performing. Nepal’s chances of winning the trophy and qualifying the the U-19 Youth World Cup is very high and that adds to the sporty treat.

Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) had done, no doubt, the best job in previous two months to prepare three new venues thus confirming it won’t go away, but after the inauguration, I still felt there is a lot to be desired from them on the management side. Continue reading…

AFC President’s Cup is a football tournament that would be participated by national champion clubs of eight Asian nations that falls under category C of AFC’s classification. What eludes the clubs most is the prize money – US$ 50,000 for the winner and US $ 25,000 for the runners-up. The tournament originally planned in Nepal was nearly lost due to security and flood-light problems but a team of AFC after inspection okayed Nepal as the venue and Nepali football fans are eagerly awaiting for the event. Continue reading…

History is the story of the winners. Newspapers are the first draft of the history. How much you agree with these two sayings? I agree with both of them – to some extent. Newspapers with the news of all the events and incidents become the first draft of the history, and the newspapers reports most-probably say nothing about the losers. It became apparent yesterday when I was on my duty to collect materials to write a news item on three Taekwondo players, who are training to represent Nepal in the World Championship in Spain in April. Continue reading…