It seems that new era of sports have begun in the country with the real story of Nepalese sportsman winning a car worth 2.3 million in a domestic sporting event.
It’s definitely a ray of hope for every sports person in the country that sports will soon become a career option. It seems that All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) team has clearly understood the basic fundamental that professionalism in the game is indispensable to improve its standard beyond certain level.
Further it also recognizes the fact the domestic structure of any game is backbone for its performance at international level. The tougher the domestic structure the better the result will be at international level.
The story sends clear message to all the stake holder of sports in the country that Nepalese corporate world is now mentally prepared to support the sport in the country. The support from corporate world will increase if they are assured that their money is purely utilized for the development of the game and they can also equally benefited by promoting the game. The recent announcement by Yati Airlines to recruit 11 cricketers purely for sporting activities underpins the above statement.
The story sets a right example for other sports institutions in the country to accumulate the available indigenous resources in most effective way and use them for the development of sports in sustainable way. This will certainly put pressure on other sport governing body in the country to follow the same guideline.
But one thing needs to be clearly understood that only one time award of car will not solve financial problem of a sports person. It is very important that the sport person earns enough to run the car during his sporting life and life after retirement (through coaching and other sporting activities). It is also equally important that not only our one best player runs the car but a group of best players run the car individually. After all in a team game a best player becomes best player with the help of his team. If we can not ensure this, the investment made today will hardly fetch desired return. I understand that ANFA president has understood all these as he has expressed in his recent write up and also has long term plan to continue this tradition. This is indeed a great start towards the development of the sport in the country!