More news on the need to stay up to date

Not long ago there was   a whole lot of talk centered   on some of our leading national footballers. Speculation was rife about them playing in Europe, which would have   been   a very important   landmark in the annals of Nepali sports.

The news spread like wild fire largely because of massive coverage on part of both national print and electronic media. Local bloggers devoted to  sports   also had a field day and left no stone upturned.

This obviously generated unprecedented   buzz, interest and excitement in the sport fraternity. The media frenzy   gave everyone the impression that it was going to happen.  I   don’t blame them because they were led to believe.

As for the media they were   somewhat guilty of jumping   into the band wagon. The source of the news should have been authenticated before giving it full credence.

Here I am talking about highly talented Rohit Chand who was in the spotlight. The youngster was tied to English and French clubs. The way   media reports played out, it looked though something positive was going to materialize for him.

I was in awe after reading the news but I had my reservation. I was far from convinced that it was true. Deep down in my heart I just wished it was real.  If I am not   wrong  it  all started, following Coach Graham Roberts  interview  with  “Talk  Sport”( radio show).

In the interview Roberts was all praise for   Chand, and said he   saw a great potential in him and could play anywhere.  Then there was   news   of   Arsenal, Tottenham and Lille (France)   in pursuit of the young defender. A month later he was associated   with   Kettering Town. Rest is history.

The local media   dwelt on the news   and there was no stopping.  Had only they bothered to dig deep into  fact finding  and resorted to reporting accordingly it would have made sense.   It is close to two months but they have remained  silent.

Sport buffs that had   intensely   followed   the   story   day and night  heavily  rely on news outlets for updates. They  definitely want to know more about it. Long as news agencies serve audiences’ interest  they are doing the right thing.

News based merely on speculation and rumor does nothing more than  sensationalizes the content and misinforms readers. As regards to  verification of news there are tools that can be applied to validate it. No matter what the truth must be reported.

Ace striker Anil Gurung was in a similar spot for the same reason. However, Sahara Club (Pokhara )  did a fairly good job of  updating readers from day one to the end.

Santosh Sahukhala is the latest footballer to have hogged the headlines. His jaunt to Indonesia to play trial matches for Sriwijaya FC, one of the leading Indonesian clubs was the most talked topic  in the sporting circle.

Expectantly the media   made a big noise  over  it. It was reported  that football enthusiast Nabin Chitrakar   was the main architect behind  the Indonesian deal . Other than that  there was very little reporting done. To add there was barely any follow up stories, especially following Sahukhala’s rejection by the club.

More than the main stream media  sport bloggers   were simply fantastic in terms of tracking every move of the footballer and  providing photographs as well .

In recent times we had several of our players in the likes of Anil Gurung,  Sandip Rai and Rohit Chand play for Indian clubs.  Barring a handful of news one never really got  the chance  to read much about their overall performances, playing time, number of games played and  etc.

Apparently Nepali athletes or national teams   become  the subject of  particular  public  interest  whenever and wherever  they  compete nationally or internationally. It is the   media ( any  shape and form)  responsibility  to  provide proper and adequate coverage  in the most  consistent  and professional manner.