ANFA cronies need to pipe down

I find it quite amusing outrageous that a few ANFA officials, most of them one time pawns of Geeta Rana, have been very eager to publicly take shots at their rivals and Nepal's sports establishment as a whole. They use lingo like, "opportunists" "incompetent" "politically motivated" "corrupt" "puppets" to portray the people outside their fraternity. I hope they realize that these words in fact best describes themselves.

Weightlifters break national marks

The National Weightlifting Championship in Nepalgunj (great to see that a national level tournament was held outside of Kathmandu for a change) witnessed many national weightlifting marks being shattered. The event also highlighted the popularity of the sport amongst female athletes.

An international sports official once told me that if Nepal wants to win a medal in the Olympics, weightlifting was its best bet. It's an inexpensive sport for diminutive athletes and requires no infrastructure.

Update: good, but sad story about weightlifters today in the Kathmandu Post.

Jeevan Ram felicitated, Sports Minister speaks

A couple of interesting stories today. Outgoing NSC member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha was felicitated by the national sports associations. One of the keynote speakers at the function was Ganesh Thapa who was embroiled in a bitter feud with Jeevan Ram. What this shows is despite all the shenanigans that went on in the sports sector, for the most part, there is consensus that Jeevan Ram brought a progressive agenda to the NSC.

On a related note, Minister for Youth and Sports Ganesh Nepali talked about the sports sector at a press meet in Janakpur. He is correct that sports should not be centralized in Kathmandu and that there are few Madhesis in leadership positions. It is however important to realize that sports is one of the few sectors in Nepal where there is a strong mix of ethnic groups and castes.

Shambolic journalism

Today's Republica featured one of the worst researched Nepali sports article (I sent them an email about it, so there is a chance that and the online version might be has been edited if you follow the link).

In a story about Anil Gurung's two goals for Woking FC they stated that Woking was Chelsea's reserve team which is flat out wrong. Woking is an independent club in England's 6th (SIXTH!) division. Also Anil played for a second string lineup which Woking's coach dubbed "young Academy side". There was also no mention that this match was just a pre-season friendly. Thankfully the Himalayan Times did a much better job reporting the facts.

No one is trying to downplay Anil's accomplishments. His journey to England will inspire many footballers and he has created a great buzz for Nepali football. All I am saying is get the facts right!

Update: Republica's sports editor contacted me and thanked me for bringing the blunder to his attention. So being the softie I am - to the newspapers credit, I will say they have written some of the best sports feature stories lately, especially during the 5th National Games.

Golf tourism and Nepal

Great article in the Kathmandu Post by Ayush Khadka on golf tourism and Nepal. I have touched on many facets of his articles in my tourism related posts and golf related posts.