When Birat Krishna Shrestha \u2013 undoubtedly Nepal\u2019s best football coach, as of now \u2013 fields his team (Nepal Police Club) against Dordoi Dynamo at the Group B qualifiers of AFC President\u2019s Cup, there could be a lot in his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However unlikely, he would be best suggested to keep out the thought of the outcome of Police Club\u2019s past matches against the Kyrgyz League Champions. For that may cloud his strategy. There are other things that he needs to take care of, most notably the absence of a known striker in the team (Jumanu Rai limped out of the match after playing for hardly 15 minutes in the semi-finals of British Gorkha Cup that the police team eventually won).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This perhaps is the weakest of the teams Nepal Police has had to field, that too in an international championship. Along with the Rai\u2019s injury, Bharat Khawas \u2013 the mainstay of the team for quite some time \u2013 is no longer playing for the same side. With due respect to Ananta Thapa and Rakesh Shrestha, they cannot be considered future of Nepali football, no matter how important they\u2019ve been in the past for both the national side and police team. Although we can say that the \u2018available\u2019 players must be in good rhythm after winning the British Gorkha Cup title.
Recently, President of Nepal\u2019s football governing body (ANFA), Ganesh Thapa was heard saying, \u201cA team, to win title, does not need star players. The team should be ready to work hard, and should be disciplined.\u201d He added that Police team was the only one with these qualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
True, the only club that has not had discipline problems is the police team. We haven\u2019t heard of late night endeavors of its players. Added to that are the facilities of regular training that the police team has been enjoying, which has worked for its advantage for long enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the times have changed, and so has the desire of the footballers. Now they demand a hefty price tag, and not mere salary and security associated with the \u2018job\u2019 of playing football. That\u2019s one reason why a number of football players choose other clubs instead of the \u2018departmental\u2019 teams. Once a player of Armed Police Force, Santosh Sahukhala left the \u2018departmental\u2019 team, to become the most expensive player in Nepal. The players are looking for other clubs to convert their football skills into paychecks. And Manang Marshyangdi, Three Star, Himalayan Sherpa, and also Machhindra pay better than Police Club, which is no more lucrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nepali football is in a transition stage. It\u2019s neither been able to become completely professional, nor has it remained amateur like years ago. And the growth pangs are visible. Perhaps that\u2019s best represented by the past performance of Police Club at the AFC President\u2019s Cup. It represented Nepal as \u2018A\u2019 division champions for the first time in 2007, where it was runners-up. Subsequently, it was limited to semi-finalist in 2008, and first round exits in \u201909 and \u201911 (both at home). Nepal Police Club has scored 21 goals in the AFC President\u2019s Cup, compared to 23 goals conceded so far. In 2011, NPC conceded 5 and scored none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With three \u2018A\u2019 Division League titles and a National League title, it is not something coach Birat Krishna Shrestha would be unaware of. That could be the reason why he shared with media \u2013 before leaving for Phnom Penh \u2013 the problems he was facing with the team. Saving face? Maybe, but his problems are genuine. And resolving these problems may not be only in his capacity. Police Club will have to take some steps for that. The coach is on contract; maybe other players could be brought in the same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shrestha has had this habit of giving a list of problems, before start of major tournaments, in the past too. But, when the tournament got over, more often than not, he has landed up with silverware for his team and \u2018best coach\u2019 award for himself. At least the fans would be hoping for the same, even this time. After all, the last time Police team reached the final, the matches were played outside national frontiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This write-up appeared in Yours Truly\u2019s weekly column in The Kathmandu post \u2013 OFFSIDE \u2013 on 5th May, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When Birat Krishna Shrestha \u2013 undoubtedly Nepal\u2019s best football coach, as of now \u2013 fields his team (Nepal Police Club) against Dordoi Dynamo at the Group B qualifiers of AFC President\u2019s Cup, there could be a lot in his head. However unlikely, he would be best suggested to keep out the thought of the outcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":671,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670\/revisions\/671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/somesh.com.np\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}