Kudos to our players

The Himalayan Times

6 December 2019

Kudos to our players

The contribution of sports and culture of any country to bringing national harmony among its communities and holding its head high in the world arena cannot be ignored. Developed countries boast about their achievements in maintaining high international standards in sports and culture. Among the South Asian countries, India used to dominate other nations in South Asian Games held in the previous years. Other nations, including Nepal, had to struggle to win gold medals. 

This time, Nepal astounded India and other participating nations by harvesting 15 gold medals on a single day at the beginning of South Asian Games (SAG) despite many shortcomings “Keep it up, players” (THT, Dec.4, and Page 6). The credit should go to the hard work and perseverance of our enthusiastic players. Had they been provided the necessary equipment, logistics and other accessories well in advance for the necessary preparations, there would have more gold medals in our hands. For examples, our shooters would not have had to borrow ammunitions from their opponents, which made them totally incapable of using their skills. Also, Himal Tamata, who won the gold medal in duathlon, had to borrow his sportswear from his friend. 

Having said all these, Nepali players have created history in many events in this 13^th SAG which is being held in Nepal after 20 years despite the many shortcomings and eleventh hour preparation. With Nepal leading the medal winning chart, it must be an eye opener to the government and its concerned authorities to be more generous in providing necessary facilities to the national players and more committed to bringing overall improvement in the existing infrastructure and equipment. If the government is ready to make investment in the players training, equipment and infrastructure, our national players could throw up more surprises in the international arena in the days to come.

Rai Biren Bangdel

Maharajgunj