March 29, 2017

Hoopdarshan Episode 44: Eban Hyams on UBA Pro League and Australian Basketball


Eban Hyams is a truly global citizen, raised in India and Australia, and with professional basketball experience around the world. Most recently, Hyams has been a part of the UBA Basketball League in India. In Episode 44, he joins Hoopdarshan to talk to hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok about his experience leading the Haryana Gold, the Australian basketball scene, and his favourite emojis.

Hyams, a point-guard, has been in the UBA from its inception. Born in Pune to Jewish-Indian parents, he has played college basketball in the USA and professional basketball in Australia, Singapore, Philippines, and Belgium. He has trained with India's national basketball team under Coach Kenny Natt and worked with NBA India around the country holding basketball training sessions. In addition to the interview with Hyams, Kaushik and Karan also discuss the end of the Federation Cup and the upcoming NBA Playoffs.



Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

Make sure to follow Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud or search for 'Hoopdarshan' on the iTunes Store! Auto-sync Hoopdarshan to your preferred podcast app NOW!

Hoopdarshan can be found on...

March 27, 2017

2017 Federation Cup: ONGC Men secure 5th consecutive title; Chhattisgarh Women win gold



There are many different types of celebrations, and at the finals of the 31st Federation Cup National Basketball Tournament in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) on Sunday, the winners felt various degrees of joy. In the men's final, Dehradun's ONGC won their fifth-consecutive title, securing their legacy as one of the greatest units in Indian Basketball history. In the women's game, Chhattisgarh buried two years of disappointments by winning in the final stage and bagging the gold medal.

The Federation Cup - organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA) - was held from March 22-26 this year at the PSG Indoor Sports Complex courts in Coimbatore. The tournament is a sort of elite club of Indian basketball, featuring only the best eight each of men and women teams from the previous year's Senior National in competition.

ONGC were tested to the brink by their closest competitors in the country, IOB (Chennai) in the men's final, and it took a measured response by two of India's top international players - Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Amritpal Singh (17 points each) - to help the Dehradun side slip by to a 55-52 win.

Several of India's most important players came head to head in the women's final between Chhattisgarh and Indian Railways. Chhattisgarh had lost at the final stage at the Federation Cup the past two years and trailed 44-42 at halftime on Sunday. But a strong second half surge and impressive performances by their centerpiece Poonam Chaturvedi (28) and forward Sharanjeet Kaur (27) helped Chhattisgarh finally win the gold, 77-67. India's experienced international player Anitha Paul Durai (23) and Neena (17) had strong performances for Railways in the loss.

The third-place games were also settled on Sunday. West Bengal women were led by Madhu Kumari (22) and Libina MJ (16) in a statement big win over Tamil Nadu, 81-52. Indian Air Force (Services) finished third in the men's division with a 85-79 win over Karnataka's Army Service Corps and Centre.

Final Scores:
  • Men: ONGC (Amritpal Singh 17, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 17) bt. IOB (Prasanna Venkatesh 14, Pratham Singh 13) 55-52.
  • Women: Chhattisgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 28, Sharanjeet Kaur 27) bt. Southern Railways (Anitha Paul Durai 23, S. Neena 17) 77-67.

Final Standings

Men
  • 1. ONGC
  • 2. IOB
  • 3. Indian Air Force

Women
  • 1. Chhattisgarh
  • 2. Indian Railways
  • 3. West Bengal

March 22, 2017

Indian basketball's finest head to Coimbatore for the 2017 Federation Cup


If the Senior Nationals are the largest showcase of talent in Indian basketball, then the Federation Cup is the exclusive inner-club, a competition among only the best of the best. Based on the success at the previous nationals, only the top eight men's and women's teams from the country are invited to this national tournament, setting up a tantalizing tournament of the finest cagers in the country.

This year, the 31st Federation Cup All India Basketball Tournament for Men and Women - organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA) - tipped off on Wednesday March 22nd at the PSG Indoor Sports Complex courts in Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu). The 16 combined men and women's teams will play until the Finals on March 26th.

Participating Teams

Men
  • Group A: Indian Air Force (Services), Ludhiana Basketball Academy (Punjab), Army Service Corps and Centre (Karnataka), Customs and Central Excise Kochi (Kerala).
  • Group B: ONGC Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Indian Overseason Bank (Tamil Nadu), Central Railway (Indian Railways), Income Tax (Gujarat).

Women
  • Group A: Southern Railway (Indian Railways), Telengana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab.
  • Group B: Kerala, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal.

Reigning champions of the Senior Nationals and last year's Federation Cup Kerala Women will be hoping to continue their golden streak and win back to back titles. The Men's field has been dominated by ONGC (Dehradun) for the past four years, and they will be looking for an amazing fifth consecutive trophy in Coimbatore this year.

March 20, 2017

Hoopdarshan Episode 43: Jeena Scaria becomes a young leader for India's Women's National Team


Kerala's Jeena Scaria has quickly become India's finest women's basketball player, a young leader for the Women's national squad, the team's "chechi" (elder sister). In episode 43 of Hoopdarshan, Jeena joins hosts Kaushik Lakshman and Karan Madhok to talk about her expectations for India at the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup on home soil, her leadership in helping Kerala win the Senior Nationals after a three-decade wait, and the scarce opportunities for women in Indian basketball.

In the new episode, Kaushik and Karan also discuss Kevin Durant's planned trip to India, the superstar players in the UBA Basketball League, and why home food will help India's performances at the Women's FIBA ABC.



Hoopdarshan is the truest voice of Indian basketball, and since we're such hopeless fans of the game, it will become the voice of everything basketball related we love, from the NBA to international hoops, too. On every episode of Hoopdarshan, we will be inviting a special guest to interview or chat to about a variety of topics. With expert insight from some of the brightest and most-involved people in the world of Indian basketball, we hope to bring this conversation to a many more interested fans, players, and followers of the game.

Make sure to follow Hoopdarshan on Soundcloud or search for 'Hoopdarshan' on the iTunes Store! Auto-sync Hoopdarshan to your preferred podcast app NOW!

Hoopdarshan can be found on...

March 16, 2017

Mumbai Challengers win UBA Basketball League Season 4 championship in Goa



A month ago, before the start of the most-hyped and stacked fourth season of the UBA Basketball League, the Mumbai Challengers looked like the squad with the greatest embarrassment of riches. The team, coached by former India international coach Jora Singh, featured a dangerous balance of both Indian and international stars. Players with international experience like Jagdeep Singh Bains and Prasanna Venkatesh shared the court with American stars Inderbir Singh Gill, Jimmy Scroggins, and the brief-NBA veteran, Alex Scales. With these many weapons, the result was either going to be spectacular success or a disappointing implosion.

A month later, Jora Singh's squad put to rest any doubts over chemistry issues around this great collection of talent. Mumbai completed their 2-0 sweep over the Bengaluru Beast in the Best-of-Three finals series in Goa on Wednesday, March 15, to be crowned UBA Basketball League champions for the first time. The season's championship series (knockout stages) were held at the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Goa from March 10. The Finals were a continuation of a month-long period of success for Mumbai, who had finished with a league-best record of 5-1 during the regular season in Chennai and swept last year's silver medalists Punjab Steelers in the semi-finals 2-0.

At one point or another, all of Mumbai's big names stepped up in sealing the deal for the challengers. Scales and Scroggins contributed 34 and 32 points respectively in Game 1 to down Bengaluru 110-95. Scales doubled-up with 34 again in Game 2, Inderbir added 33, and Scroggins 21 to win the high-octane Game 2 118-105. Bains and Nikhil also made valuable contributions for the champions. On the losing side, the combination of Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Chris Solomon, Pratham Singh, and Palpreet Singh Brar played well enough to get to this stage but ultimately couldn't handle Mumbai's firepower in the Finals.

Bhriguvanshi was named the tournament's Indian MVP last week, while the foreign MVP award went to Punjab's Dermaine Crockell.

The UBA announced that they will be holding their first-ever All Star game between the best players of the North and South Division in Goa on Thursday, March 16. On the day of the Finals, they also held their first-ever Slam Dunk and Three-Point Contests.

March 10, 2017

UBA names Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (Bengaluru) and Dermaine Crockell (Punjab) Season 4 MVPs


The first stage of UBA Basketball League's fourth season, held in Chennai, is over. Now the top four teams - Mumbai Challengers, Punjab Steelers, Pune Peshwas, and Bengaluru Beast - have taken their talents to West Beach, I mean, to Goa, to play in the tournament's Semi-Final and Final stage.

But before the final week, the UBA celebrated the best performing individuals from the regular season. Usually, the UBA has given one Most Valuable Player (MVP) award every season. But this time around, with the addition of a dozen foreign players boosting up the talent level around the league, they have handed out two MVP awards, one each the the tournament's best foreign and Indian player. Not surprisingly, both awards went to new additions to the league, which has been boosted by the arrival of both foreign players and international-level Indian players this season.

UBA's Indian MVP award went to India's superstar swingman from Varanasi and the Bengaluru Beast, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi. One of the most successful and popular players in Indian basketball, Bhriguvanshi led Bengaluru to a 3-3 record in the regular season, averaging 28.3 points, 8.8 rebounds and 10 assists (tied for 2nd). During the course of the season, he recorded UBA's first-ever triple double with a 29 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists performance in a win over Pune. Another highlight of his season was the 57 point, 11 assist game against Hyderabad. Bhriguvanshi was awarded Bajaj Pulsar RS 200 with his MVP trophy.

The foreign MVP award went to the 6'2" American guard Dermaine Crockell, formerly of the Minnesota State University and now playing with the Punjab Steelers in the UBA. Crockell had two 50-point outings during the course of the season. He averaged 41.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists and led Punjab to a 2-4 record before winning the subsequent play-in game for the semis. He was awarded $2500 for this MVP achievement.

Both these players are still in the tournament with their teams in the semi-finals in Goa. Winning MVP is just the first step of the process: will one of them be able to cap off this individual achievement with team success and bring home the Season 4 title?

March 8, 2017

NBA plans to woo larger Indian audiences with Hindi commentary soon


With broadcasts over the decades on ESPN/Star, Ten Networks, and most-recently, Sony SIX, NBA fans in India have become relatively familiar with the voices behind the NBA. The English commentary featuring the voices of Marv Albert and Jeff Van Gundy, Mike Breen and Kevin Harlan, Doris Burke and Mark Jackson, and a personal favourite - Walt Frazier - have become as legendary as the biggest moments in the game itself. The commentary has played along as the NBA's perfect soundtrack, providing fans in India (and around the world) the perfect language of basketball expression.

Very soon, it seems that India's other official language - Hindi - is set to enjoy its own moment of verbal basketball gymnastics.

At a conference in Mumbai organised by Asian-pacific digital broadcasting association CASBAA, NBA India's Managing Director Yannick Colaco mentioned that the NBA was very close to featuring Hindi commentary during Sony SIX broadcasts of live games in India.

Via IndianTelevision.com

Speaking at the CASBAA OTT summit in Mumbai, NBA India executive Yannick Colaco said that, since audio was very important for sports content, they were actively looking at going regional. "We are already having the audio for 600 games in Chinese," he stressed, adding that, in three months, NBA planned to have its games commentary in Hindi as well.

The NBA's decision follows a familiar blueprint pursued by the English Premier League (EPL) for football, which was a promising thought but was received to mixed reviews. The NBA was reportedly watched by over 140 million viewers in India over the course of last season.

Hindi is the second-most spoken language in the world (after Mandarin), with nearly 500 million speakers combined who speak it as a native or a second-language. With this move, the NBA could reach out to millions of viewers in India who are much more comfortable with Hindi than English as the language of broadcast, potentially expanding their fan-base further. It will take away from some of the perceived "elitism" of the game - of basketball as a foreign sport just for comfortable English speakers - and bring it down to the grassroots.

But on the other hand, I can also expect some backlash. Just like the reaction to EPL in Hindi, many habitual viewers will not be comfortable with the change in language and terminology from something that they have become accustomed to. Furthermore, there are millions of basketball fans in India who don't speak Hindi. Hindi and English are the most spoken languages in the country, but a large percentage of the population speaks various regional languages like Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, etc.

Of course, hardcore Indian basketball fans already have some experience of Hindi commentary and broadcast, and we can thank DD Sports for that. For decades, India's national championships have been broadcast both in English and Hindi (and often, in other languages too). They haven't always been very good.

Abroad, the most famous example of a crossover of American sports and Indian language has been the success of Hockey Night Punjabi, the Canada-based broadcast of the Ice Hockey league NHL. The Sacramento Kings have been ahead of the "India outreach curve" in the NBA thanks to their Mumbai-born owner Vivek Ranadive. At recent "Bollywood Nights" in Sacramento, they have made pre-game P.A. announcements in Hindi and had players wearing warm-up jerseys in the devanagari script.

Ultimately, the success of NBA in Hindi will depend not on the language but on the quality of commentators. The NBA will have a tough job at finding those rare individuals who are both articulate in Hindi and also experts in the NBA and basketball. Hindi speakers who cannot tell their Wilson Chandler from Chandler Parsons will not do. NBA experts without expertise in smart and coherent Hindi will be a let down: even many of us First-Language Hindi speakers would falter at instinctively remembering our paryayvachis and viloms. I also hope that the NBA looks at current and former Indian basketball players who have a natural understanding and experience of the game.

The NBA is ultimately a North American league and will always be first identified by its English commentators. But I hope that the move to switch to Hindi can be done the right away so we can have Hindi's own response to Marv Albert's "Yes!" and Walt Frazier's most popular "Clydeisms".