Cricketers meet sports minister
Aug 11th, 2009 by admin
Kathmandu, August 10, NS report -
After the Prime Minister it was the sports minister as a week after submitting a four point memorandum to the Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, the national cricketers group led by Binod Das handed over copies of it to the sports minister Ganesh Nepali and member secretary of National Sports Council (NSC) Bishnu Lamsal today.
The memorandum consisted of four demands- employment of national cricketers, inclusion of cricket in departmental teams which already have their football, volleyball teams, cricketers should also get the daily allowance that other teams receive while traveling abroad and improvement of infra-structure for the development of cricket.
Captain of national team Binod Das also briefed the minister on the glories history Nepali cricket has in the age group categories and sited lack of employment as the chief reason the age group success could not be continued in the senior level.
”We request you to act on the employment issue because if something is not done about it right away the players who have spent their youth playing cricket will disappear in search of employment,” explaining the groups agenda to the minister Das said, “for this we urge you to see to it that the departmental teams add cricket in their list of football, volleyball teams. This small act from you will unsure our future as cricketers”
Minister Nepali gave his word that he will take the matter seriously. “I will look at the matter seriously and act on it but let me tell you it will take sometime,” he said.
Likewise member secretary Lamsal said further act on the matter can only be started after the NSC meeting.
At the program all rounder Basanta Regmi urged to minister to take action soon as some of the players are negotiation with clubs in the middle east to play cricket. “If a decision is not made soon our visas will come and all this hard work will go in vain,” urged Regmi to the sports minister.
After the meeting Das told the journalists that he was optimistic that their plea will be heard. “We haven’t come with impossible demands and the minister was positive too so I am optimistic our plea will be heard,” said Das.
