Abraham Lincoln once said, “And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” As a year comes to an end, and another starts, it's time to take stock of the year gone by, and a time to figure out what we want in another that has just started.
For sports fans, it's always about how many trophies their teams win, rather than how many matches they play. One bronze medal in Asian Games, added to a fifth place finish in South Asian Games is not what Nepali fans dream of. They want more, especially when Afghanistan, the latest entrant to SAG is breathing down our neck.
So what would a sports fan wish for, in the coming year? Brighter medal tallies, more efficient sport management and teams that would scare the opposition? 11 items from the wishlist of a sport fan for 2011:
- We would like to see more Deepak Maharjans, for they represent the kind of professionals we need. Quiet, tongue-tied, but efficient in the punches they deliver at a boxing ring. We'd rather not have the boisterous players, promising more than they could deliver. Additionally, we would not mind having more Dipak Bistas, although that's a rare commodity winning us four gold medals at SAG, as long as they don't let their tongues work ahead of their brain.
- We would like to see a Sports Minister, who would like to work with the sport officials, and not against them, using whims as a policy. We would rather like to see them making policies, which help the players and the game than leading contingent at multi-national events.
- We would like to see an end to the rivalry between National Sports Council and Nepal Olympic Committee. Both are expected to help the sports sector flourish and despite knowing their rivalry is helping other countries bag more medals, they've gone about their way. It would be nice to see members from both the sides thinking for sports, together.
- We would like the Finance Minister to release budget on time, for the players suffer when they don't get proper facilities. Lack of budget does hamper a player's mentality, just the way it does affect our households.
- We would want our sport officials to be respected, as people who think for the players and development of the game. For now, the players - even while talking to journalists - use the unmentionables, when they have to refer to any sport official.
- We would like the Supreme Court verdict which said, sports associations do not need registration under National Sports Council, to be honoured and implemented. It has the potential to open the doors for modernization of Nepali sports. The sport associations do not need control regime.
- We would like to hear the news that sport officials were awarded for their honesty and integrity. We would like to see them working for the upliftment of the game, if that's not too much to ask for.
- We would like to see more spectators in the stadium during the football league. Somehow the stadium being filled is either limited to folklores now, or the international matches, which is rare already.
- We would like to see the ANFA president Ganesh Thapa, to delegate some authority, especially now that he might become Vice-President of Asian Football Council. We would like him at the helm for his developmental work, and not the goals he used to score in late 80s and very early 90s.
- We would like to have a cricket coach that can better the records of Roy Dias, who brought Nepali cricket to international notice. We need someone who gets players' respect, carries on where Dias left and not reinvent the wheel again.
- And finally, at least some from us would like to see Sachin Tendulkar scoring his 60th Test match century this year, for the simple reason that he's born to do that.
Impossible dreams? But then, that's the liberty fans have, of demanding too much… And what a day it would be, if we get to see all of them fulfilled.
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