Politics should not interfere with sports, except when it comes to providing apathetic sports officials tickets to international sporting galas, giving grants to mismanaged sports federations, providing free land for the construction of corruption filled sporting infrastructure projects, and subsidizing international tournaments which have a limited impact both socially and economically for Nepal. That pretty much sums up the sentiments of most of our sports officials.
If the government provides money to a firm for the construction of roads, the public is right to demand the government makes sure that the company is held accountable. Similarly if sports want access to government funds they need to be prepared to answer to Uncle Shyam.
Just the other day the government increased allowances for SAF Games athletes. Will those same athletes and their respective sports association be accountable if they fail to put on an inspired performance in Dhaka? My guess is that they will just make more excuses – the lack of facilities, load-shedding, global warming, an Indian conspiracy against Nepali athletes, etc., etc.
It is not that I do not sympathize with our athletes, the ineptitude of the NSC has been highlighted on numerous occasions on this blog, but too often the government is used as an easy scapegoat to shield the incompetence of our sports associations and the under performance of our athletes. If the government is asked to step-up and bat, athletes and sports associations need to reciprocate.
