Wanted: Sporting Leadership

Our squad to the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games bagged a pair of bronzes. Good for the team. It has managed not to return home empty-handed. The first card of substance was recorded in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games when a string of eight bronze medals put a grand end to the medal drought the country had suffered since the first Asian Games hosted by New Delhi in 1951. The jamboree assembling the cream of the Asian athletic landscape took place a fortnight after King Tribhuvan formally declared the dawn of democracy in Nepal.

The pair of bronze medals collected in karate and women’s kabaddi at the latest Asian Games underscores that the light at the end of the tunnel is far from extinguished. Things could have been worse considering that five of the 45 participating national teams returned home without any medal.

One read somewhere that “Nepal falls short of ambition”, which is an understatement, if one were to recall that barely a year ago, the National Sports Council had loudly declared that our athletes would fetch a bag of record ten medals, including a gold. Even then, I received the claim as overly ambitious. The serious doubt, unfortunately, proved right this month. There are other ways of taking the sports community of players and admirers into confidence instead of taking it along the garden path with false hopes.

Uncalled-for boasts made for effect do not boost any morale if not accompanied by sustained efforts for progress. Realistic targets and candid assessment made to the public, instead of elasticity in interpretations of performances, are the need of a realistic approach that does not mislead anyone. And what about the press coverage? Sports scribes hardly gave any hint of the national contingent’s prospects by way of curtain raisers.

Ministerial reassurance

Minister for Sports, Youth and Technology, who also looks after Education, Science and Technology, Sasmit Pokharel assured sports lovers and athletes the day Nagoya Asiad concluded that the National Games schedule “will not be postponed” this time. The repeatedly rescheduled contest is targeted for December 2 to 13 in Karnali Province. Having stayed back at home, reportedly to attend to other pressing issues at home, Minister Pokharel assured that things would not be the same henceforth.