Can Papon walk the talk?

The newly appointed Minister of Youth and Sports Nazmul Hassan Papon made many great promises on the first day at his new office yesterday, promises the country's sports fraternity has heard before from his predecessors with very little implementation.

Papon arrived at the National Sports Council (NSC) office yesterday for the first time after taking oath as the minister and told the media about his plans to sit with every federation to know about their issues.

"I have to know the people who are involved with the federations. I have to sit with each federation's officials separately because meeting eight or nine federations at the same time will not do any good," Papon told the sports journalists present at the NSC.

"We have to know what type of support they need. Before providing financial support, we have to know about their objectives and targets for at least three years because it won't be possible to see the outcomes if they set a five-to-seven-year plan," he added.

Although Papon wanting to sit with each federation to identify the issues is commendable, the main reasons hindering the growth of the country's sports like – financial constraint, lack of round-the-year training, dearth of facilities and quality coaches, low accountability and transparency of federation officials – are already widely known.

Previous ministers have spoken about fixing these issues, but most of their vows proved to be empty promises.

Papon, who is the incumbent president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB), also spoke about opening up new playgrounds across the country, instead of focusing on building stadiums.

"I am not in favour of stadiums, rather I am in favour of sports. We don't need to have stadiums everywhere. We need to have open playgrounds with facilities like dressing rooms so that the people have access to enter the grounds and play there," he said.

Papon's predecessor Zahid Ahsan Russel had also made similar promises about solving the problems and spoke about taking the necessary steps to nurture sports in the grassroot level.

However, it was later seen that Russel, like the previous ministers, emphasised more on infrastructural development during his tenure.

As the minister, Papon also has to find a way to revive various sports which are slowly disappearing from the country and find ways to spread sports in the rural areas.

Unlike Russel, Papon also has some added challenges, as right now he is the head figure of the country's sports ministry and the most influential sports body – the BCB.

The minister is yet to step down from his post at the BCB and has indicated to the media that he won't leave the post abruptly.

As the sports minister, Papon has so far said exactly what was expected of him. But previous experiences are dissuading the country's sports fraternity from holding its breath in anticipation for a radical change in the coming years. In his initial media interaction, Papon has talked the talk, only time will tell, if he can walk the talk.