Philippines' Mighty Sports win 2016 William Jones Cup; India show potential but finish 1-7

After a gap of twelve years, India's Senior Men's Basketball Team returned to the prestigious William Jones Cup, the biggest Asian basketball tournament outside of the FIBA tournaments, held in Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) from July 23 - 31. A total of nine teams - international sides, club sides, and college squads - took side in this round-robin league-based Men's tournament. Finishing a perfect 8-0, the club Mighty Sports of the Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League (PCBL) finished at top spot. Team India ended the tournament with at just 1-7 at ninth place, but played well with strong performances despite some bad fortune.

Marshalled by the output of Dewarick Spencer, who led Mighty Sports in both points and assists, the PBA club blew out all their opponents with a comfortable margin. Their only challenging games were against Taipei Blue and Iran, but they managed to end well in both contests to keep their unbeaten record. A comfortable 104-80 win against Taipei White in the last game of the tournament on Sunday, July 31st gave Mighty Sports the tournament's best record.

Korea (6-2) and Iran (5-3) finished second and third respectively.

Despite the final 1-7 win-loss record, the Indian men performed admirably well against tougher opposition. India's high-point was their victory against Taipei White - the Men's first-ever win in William Jones history - on July 29th. India's star swingman Vishesh Bhriguvanshi scored 27 in the satisfying 77-63 win, outdoing a 18-point effort by Yang Tsing-Chih.

India also lost two further games in unfortunate fashion, going going to California State University (USA) to a late three pointer 62-60 and losing to Taipei Blue 76-70 after pushing the game to overtime. Against higher ranked physical teams such as Egypt, Iran and Mighty Sports, India were neck-to-neck through most of the contest, but lack of concentration in small stretches cost them a victory.

Some of India's early losses could have easily turned in their favour had they hadn't suffered an additional, off-the-court hitch. India's captain Amrit Pal Singh and backup guard Basil Philip both suffered from a passport error that ultimately hurt their chances to fly with the team for the start of the tournament. Amrit Pal and Philip missed the first four games of the tournament and their absence was missed in a couple of India's close losses, to California State and Taipei Blue.

Amrit Pal's return to the lineup however truly ignited India again as the big man ended up leading the team in scoring (14.4 ppg). India's forward Amjyor Singh performed well to lead the squad in rebounds (9.9 rpg) while guard Vishesh Bhriguvanshi led the team in assists (4.1 apg).

This tournament proved to be an important preview and practice for bigger challenges ahead. India is set to play in the FIBA Asia Challenge in Iran next month, and going up against different kinds of rivals in Chinese Taipei has helped the team further explore their own identity and gain invaluable international exposure.

William Jones Cup 2016: Taiwan visa error costs 2 Indian stars multiple games

After an 11-year gap, India's Men's national team's return to the prestigious William Jones Cup in Taiwan has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. India named their strongest-possible team out of the available pool, but still started the tournament with three consecutive losses. But the 0-3 record looks harsher than it should: India's first loss to California State University was to a miracle three pointer with 20 seconds left in the game and their third loss to Taipei Blue happened in overtime after a neck-to-neck contest. Even without a single win, India have announced their arrival as one of the most improved teams in the continent and a force to be reckoned with at next month's FIBA Asia Challenge.

Alas, India's close call losses early in this tournament now come burdened with an unfortunate - and frankly ridiculous - asterisk. On Monday, The Times of India reported that two of India's crucial players - captain Amrit Pal Singh and swingman Basil Philip - failed to fly to Taiwan with the rest of the team on Friday because of a visa blunder by the Embassy of Taiwan. TOI's Payal Dhawani reported that the Taiwan Embassy swapped the photographs of Amrit Pal and Philip in their visas. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) only learnt of this gaffe on Friday evening, hours before the flight to Taiwan.

Without their captain and defensive stalwart Amrit Pal, and without the scoring ability of Philip off the bench, India have still played well behind the talents of Amjyot Singh, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, and TJ Sahi, but the team didn't have enough juice to close out some of the close games. Amrit Pal and Philip are expected to miss one more game on Tuesday against Korea and will hopefully rejoin the squad after their visa troubles have been sorted for Game 5 on Wednesday against Egypt.

Amrit Pal spoke of his distress to The Times of India on Monday, while BFI's Secretary-General Chander Mukhi Sharma had stronger words to add, alleging that Taiwan purposefully tried to hold back Indian stars from making it to the William Jones Cup. Via The Times of India:

Photo Courtesy: Ekalavyas.com

A distressed Amritpal told TOI, "I was going to play in my first William Jones Cup and was very excited. Now, I am really disheartened that due to negligence of the embassy, I could not reach Taiwan. The entire team is in Taiwan except for me and Basil."
"Since (Saturday) morning, the federation is trying to get the visa issue resolved."

Meanwhile, the BFI suspects it to be a deliberate act on the part of Taiwan embassy since both Amritpal and Basil were strong players of the Indian team. Talking to TOI, Chander Mukhi Sharma, the secretary general of BFI, said, "Due to the fault of Taiwan embassy two of our important players Amritpal Singh and Basil Philip could not go for the William Jones Cup in Taipei. The federation will certainly file a formal complaint to Fiba on this."
Sharma further alleged, "This could also be a deliberate act to make our team weaker. I will get the documents on Monday. After discussing this with the federation a plaint will be lodged against the embassy."

Sharma has made a strong allegation, and it will be interesting to hear FIBA's reaction to BFI's complaint about this error. Whether it was a 'deliberate act' or not, the Embassy of Taiwan has clearly caused Team India unnecessary troubles, and may have even cost us a win or two.

UPDATE: Taiwan diplomat rejects India's accusations, blames travel agency.

Responding to accusations made by BFI's Secretary-General Chander Mukhi Sharma, Taiwanese diplomat in New Delhi Tien Chung-Kwang told China Post on Tuesday that Amrit Pal Singh and Basil Philip's mix-up was caused by the local travel agency that the BFI used, and not the Embassy of Taiwan.

Via China Post:

Tien Chung-kwang said the travel agency used by India's national basketball team to arrange the trip used the wrong pictures of two players in their visa applications, leading to the problems.

According to the diplomat, the travel agency sent information on all of the players headed to Taiwan to his office on July 20 to process visas, and their visas were issued the following day.
But the travel agency realized afterwards that it had switched the photos of Singh and Philip on their original applications, and quickly sent revised files for the two players to the office just before it closed on July 22, Tien said.
The new visas could not be processed in time to allow the players to catch a flight to Taiwan that night, leading them to miss India's opening game in the Jones Cup on July 23.

The William Jones Cup is supposed to be a crucial preparatory tournament ahead of the bigger FIBA Asia tournaments. It's a pity that, while India has performed well, they haven't been rewarded with the morale-boosting victories that they could have clinched with Amrit Pal and Philip. Hopefully, the two players will rejoin the squad safely and will be ready for tomorrow's game. India have four more matches at William Jones over the next five days, and a big victory or two will considerably raise the team's confidence level for the FIBA Asia Challenge next month.

2015 Kerala Basketball Championship: Title for Ernakulum Men and Thiruvanthapuram Women

Although the 60th Kerala Senior State Basketball Championship for Men and Women started off with multiple contenders and exciting talent from across the spectrum of districts in the state, the conclusion of the 2015 edition of the tournament was much like how the tournament concluded one year ago. The championship ended on the evening of Tuesday, December 15, at Kanhangad with familiar faces raising the winners' trophy. With victories in their respective Finals, Ernakulum Men and Thiruvanathapuram Women repeated their feats from last year and retained their titles to be crowned champions of Kerala once again.

The championship was held at the Green Valley School in Kanhangad.

Anchored by three Senior Internationals - Jeena PS, Anjana PG and Stephy Nixon - Thiruvanathapuram defeated Palakkad 57-44 to retain the Women's title on Tuesday. Nixon scored 18 while Jeena added 17 for the winning side. Thiruvanathapuram led by 39-28 at halftime and held on to their lead in a defensive second half to secure the victory.

In the boys' final, spearheaded with the experience players from Customs and Central Excise in Kochi, Ernakulum defeated the young outfit of Kozhikode 54-38. Internationally-experienced player Basil Philip was the lead scorer in the game, pacing Ernakulum with 18.

In the bronze medal games earlier in the day, Thiruvanathapuram Men defeated Kottayam 46-32 to finish at third place. Thrissur Women were paced by Grima Merlin Varghese's 22 points en route to their 50-45 bronze medal victory over Kozhikode.

The Kerala State Basketball Association (KSBA) honoured the state's representatives to India's national teams in the 2015 calendar year, including coaches Sebastian PJ and Aju Jacob and players Jeena PS, Stephy Nixon, Anjana PG, Poojamol KS, Basil Philip, Muhammed Shiras and Joshua J George.

India's 3x3 Men's squad in Sri Lanka for South Asia qualifiers of 2015 3x3 World Tour

India's Senior 3x3 Men's basketball squad is currently in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to take part in the South Asia qualifiers for the 2013 3x3 World tour. The South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) championship are being held on August 1-2 in Colombo. The winning team will qualify for the 2015 3x3 World Tour, set to be held in Beijing (China) on August 15-16.

Team India roster consists of four players - three to start and one substitute.

Roster

• Basil Philip (Kerala)
  
• Rajesh Uppar (Karnataka)
  
• Siddhant Shinde (Maharashtra)
  
• Jeevanantham Pandi (Tamil Nadu)
  

India didn't participate in the inaugural 3x3 SABA championship, which was held in Bangladesh last year and won by the hosts.

Basil Philip has made it to the Indian team for the second time, after representing the national side during the 2013 SABA 5x5 Championship in New Delhi. The remaining three, Uppar, Shinde and Jeevanantham are all first timers in the senior side.

"3x3 is a fast paced game in which Indian players have a chance to compete against the top countries in the world as we develop the 5x5 version of the sport," said Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General of the BFI. "This is a great opportunity for these players and if they compete hard and win, they'll have the opportunity to play in China for even more and greater exposure."

Elaborating further, BFI President K Govindaraj said, "We wanted to give these four players, who worked extremely hard during the coaching camp prior to SABA, the chance to obtain valuable international experience. They didn't make the SABA 5x5 team but all four are young, talented and extremely hard working. They will certainly be part of future Indian teams and this will be valuable exposure for all of them."

Participating Teams: Sri Lanka Blacks, Maldives, Sri Lanka Whites, Colombo BC, Avant BC, Sri Lanka Blues, Nepal, Sri Lanka Reds, India, Colombo Bulls.

India's Schedule

• Aug 1: 11 AM - India vs. Sri Lanka Blues.
  
• Aug 1: 4 PM - Sri Lanka Reds vs. India.
  
• Aug 1: 6 PM - Avant BC vs. India.
  
• Aug 2: 9 AM - India vs. Nepal.
  

Semi-Finals and Finals are scheduled 5 PM onwards on August 2.