High ranking government officials present at the farewell for the cricketers at the National Sports Council (NSC) on Thursday paid lip service to the team, which is not only reeling under a financial crunch but was also disallowed to train at Pulchowk Ground by the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN).[break]
The officials tried to boost the morale of the dejected players by saying that they were playing for the pride of the nation. Secretary for the Youth and Sports Ministry, Hari Prasad Nepal, went on to the extent of saying that he was expecting medal from the team. Surprisingly, he was not aware that the players had not been allowed to train because they were barred from practicing on a proper pitch.
National Sports Council bids farewell. (Photo: Bikash Karki)
When asked how he could expect medal from a team that was not even allowed to practice on a pitch, Secretary Nepal brushed aside the question saying he would answer it after the program.
“We were not aware that the players didn´t have a pitch for training. We will not let it happen next time,” he said later.
One of the cricketers of the 16-member squad, Bikram Bahadur Rana said that they didn´t even go to the cricket ground at Pulchowk Engineering Campus on the final day of their training on Wednesday after the curators there told them in advance that it would be waste of their time.
The players of the national blind cricket team had got the permission to practice on the ground of Pulchowk Engineering Campus more than a month ago, but CAN played spoilsport by barring them from using the main pitch.
Kamal Prasad Ghimire of Pulchowk Engineering Campus, who granted the permission to blind cricketers for using the ground, said that the CAN reserves the rights to allow anyone to use the pitch is maintained by the cricket´s governing body.
CAN had earlier allowed a junior game to be held on the pitch but denied entry to the blind cricketers during their entire 11-day closed camp training citing maintenance of the pitch for a regional game.
Instead of the well-maintained and orderly main pitch, the blind cricketers were provided a dusty football ground and then an uneven make-shift pitch for training before they set out to face eight teams of the world, including those from the Test playing nations like India and Pakistan.
“We didn´t have a pitch and the one that was provided was not friendly to blind people like us. The dust made us sick and the ball bounced a lot,” said Rana, who is also the vice president of the Cricket Association of the Blind, Nepal (CABN).
“Our game is different. We have to roll the ball and then listen to the sound. But the pitch was uneven,” he added. “We could have expected good result if we had our own ground.”
Although the blind cricketers pleas to provide a ground fell into a deaf ear, CAN was generous enough to provide three ´second-hand´ bats, a pair of gloves and a sports bag to the blind national team.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports has pledged to provide Rs 500,000, which it has been providing annually to the CABN, while donations from their well wishers and some social organizations have helped them set up a fund of around Rs 1.1 million for their tour, which, according to the players, is still insufficient.
The cricketers will board a flight to Bangalore so that they do not get exhausted before their game but will return on a tiring three-day journey by train because of the fund crunch.
The NSC on its part has pledged to provide Rs 35,000.
Ramesh Pokharel, general secretary of the association, said that playing sports is extremely difficult for the blind and that they have a great challenge ahead of them, especially because authorities overlooked their concerns.
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