Paras is popular but who made the farce.

I knew something like this would happen. I was already prepared for this, said national team skipper Paras Khadka standing by the side of a Pulsar Motorbike he won after being delcared the Player of the Year by Nepal Sports Journalists Forum on July 2.

However, Paras was referring to a meagre vote he received in the Popular Player of the Year category. Paras was at the centre of Nepali sports last year but agonizingly finished fourth in the Popular category which was determined through SMS votes and facebook likes. Little known wushu player Jharana Gurung was named the Popular after receiving 71,806 votes with Paras finishing a distant fourth with 9,502 prompting outburst in facebook fan pages.Hats off to Paras for accepting the loss with grace becuase he knows how the Popular player is won — a fact everyone does. The result, no doubt, is unfair to Paras and cricket lovers but the outcome has left the cricket fraternity with a lot to ponder.‘UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL’Pokharelis have seriously followed this phrase whenever any player from the city has been nominated for the award. They were united to help spikers Manju Gurung and Sipora Gurung win this award — which is actually determined by fans and followers — from the city.Jharana was third from the beautiful city of the country and the player she overcame was non other than our very own Paras — a heartbreak for us.Questions have been raised over the system of chosing the popular and it too seems unfair for a man who have done so many things for the country for quite a long time.Many have bluntly raised their voice to rethink about the procedures and it seems valid if a man with such height is left to face disappointment. But who is to rethink for this disappointment ? Lets get into the numbers because cricket has always been about a numbers. The distinction between the winner and Paras seems very easy. VOTESJharana — A little known figure in Nepali sports receives 71,806 votes and wins. Paras — The most decorated sports personality with huge number of fan followings gets 9,502 and finishes fourth.PROFILESJharana — People hardly knew this girl who actually brought an end to 18-year medal drought in wushu in Asian level tournament. Wushu is the least popular sport in the country and there are almost a nil presence of fans in the facebook or by any other means. Paras — There is no need to make any distinction about the flamboyant national team skipper who led Nepal to two title triumphs and one runner-up finish last year. His facebook page other than the personal account has more than 25,000 fans and the most active group in the social networking site contains more than 30,000 members. There are still many others not mentioned.CALCULATIONParas received a total of two thousand votes from facebook likes. With four facebook likes equivalent to one SMS, Paras received almost 1800 votes from the social networking site. A rough calculation might suggest that he received at least 500 votes from other than the fans that will total around 2300/2500. Looking at the whopping number of cricket fans connected with several groups in social networking sites, a simple question that could be asked: “Did he get just 7000 SMS votes from 30,000 odd fans?” Paras’ facebook likes were not even 7,000. A FARCE IT WAS — BUT WHO MADE IT?