This article was first published in my 'Hoopistani' column for The Times of India Sports on June 10, 2018. Click here to read the original feature.
Last month, the Basketball Federation of
India (BFI) banned all players hoping to participate in an upstart 3x3
basketball league—the 3BL—from participating in full, five-on-five basketball
activities at the domestic or international stage. A few months before that,
India’s best players Amjyot Singh and Amritpal Singh were removed from the
national team-list because of “trust” issues. Two years ago, the BFI slapped a
ban on 122 players, coaches, and staff taking part in the UBA professional
basketball league in the country.
In 2010, the BFI attempted to bar the
country’s best player Geethu Anna Jose from playing pro in Australia. Ten years
ago, the ban was on India’s best point guard TJ Sahi for alleged indiscipline.
In 2006, it was India’s best player at the time—Sozhasingarayer Robinson—banned
for missing a training camp. In 2005, one of India’s greatest basketball
players Jayasankar Menon was handed a “life ban” for participating in an
on-court fight between players.
And earlier this week, the BFI banned Amjyot
Singh and Palpreet Singh Brar (both former NBA G-League draftees) for one year
for “indisciplinary activities”.
We’ve seen this movie before, and its
ending is easy to predict: losses all around for everyone involved in Indian
basketball—the players, the federation, the fans, and the sport in itself.
In a stunning decision on Monday, the BFI
handed Amjyot (26) and Brar (24)—Punjabi players who have been lynchpins of the
national team—one-year bans for alleged indiscipline before and during the
Commonwealth Games in Australia in April. Brar’s ban was handed because he abused
the national team while drinking on social media. Amjyot—the most-talented
player in India—was banned for allegedly striking a teammate and causing
division among players in the team.
The federation
revealed that both the players’ objectionable actions had rendered them unfit
to represent the national side and even be a part of the national team.
“A national
basketball player flaunts a picture on social media application Snapchat,
abusing the nation after consumption of hard liquor. Is he really fit to be the
part of the national squad?” Chander Mukhi Sharma, the secretary-general of
BFI, said while sharing the information about suspension of two players from
national side.
“Just before the
match at the Commonwealth Games, Amjyot had also slapped his teammate and
compatriot Arshpreet Bhullar. Moreover, there had been complaints against
Amjyot of misbehaviour with the national coach. They did not report to the camp
for three days. They were causing trouble at the camp, indulging in groupism. A
disciplinary panel was constituted which decided the punishment,” said Mukhi.
…Amjyot was part
of the team that went to Gold Coast. Amjyot again tried to break up the team
into factions in Gold Coast. As a result, it cost us all the matches in Gold
Coast,” he added.
The decision to ban the two players was
taken by the BFI’s disciplinary committee, which included India’s interim men’s
head coach Rajinder Singh. A
disciplinary committee member said that Amjyot and Brar reported
late to the national camp in Bengaluru and “disrupted the atmosphere”.
This is a surprising set of allegations,
particularly on Amjyot. Sharma is essentially blaming India’s losses at the
Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast on him. Furthermore, even if the allegations
on Amjyot are true, Sharma and the federation have announced an unnecessarily
severe punishment—one year—for relatively minor issues like rifts between the
team and Snapchat insults.
But then again, Sharma, the current
federation, and even the BFI of the past have a history of overreacting to
errors made by athletes, the same athletes who are the backbone of India’s
national team structure and are the only reason that India were even considered
a rising power in Asian basketball.
I used the past tense above—“were
considered”—deliberately. By continuously shooting themselves in the foot, the
BFI are becoming Indian basketball’s worst enemy, stunting the growth of the
sport with the intention of ensuring that they have absolute power over all
players and other entities in Indian basketball. They punished Amjyot and
Amritpal over a baseless “trust” issue in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers, tried
to hurt competing leagues like 3BL and UBA by disallowing players to take part
in both events, and unofficially blackballed star players like former women’s
captain Prashanti Singh for being absent for a few days. They have had issues
with Geethu, with TJ, with Robinson, with Menon.
And with countless more to chose to remain
silent in fear that angering the federation would rob them of their only
opportunity to make a living through basketball.
Amjyot is among the “Big Three” of Indian
basketball and has been the country’s top scorer in every international
tournament he has participated in over the past five years. Brar was also a
major contributor to the national squad until recently. In 2016, Brar became
the first Indian to be drafted directly into the NBA’s G-League by the Long
Island Nets, although he was cut before the final roster. Amjyot, who played
professionally in Japan in 2016, was drafted into the G-League by the OKC Blue
in 2017 and appeared in 30 games.
The exploits of Amjyot and Brar, plus of
other important players like Amritpal Singh who played in Australia’s NBL last
season, are an exciting, new phenomenon for Indian basketball. The BFI have
seemingly been unprepared to have an appropriate reaction to these athletes
having their own professional independence. Until recently, nearly every Indian
basketball player had to rely on India’s national teams and domestic events for
basketball opportunities. But changing times have offered new avenues, and the
BFI have responded negatively to this independence. The strange
case of Amjyot and Amritpal summoned to India for February’s FIBA
World Cup Qualifiers only to find their names off the team list showcased the
federation’s troubling attitude towards its top players.
For Amjyot and Brar, the bans might be
about a bigger issue than the alleged misconduct. Both players were involved in
the build-up of the upcoming 3BL, a first-of-its-kind 3x3 basketball league in
India. But on the same day that the 3BL was announced, the BFI released a memo
to all secretaries of India’s affiliated basketball units, giving an update on
their own 3x3 event and banning all
players hoping to participate in opposing 3x3 leagues from 5x5 basketball
in/for India (and vice versa). Amjyot has since been back in the US with hopes
to train for a call-up to the G-League again, while Brar—already
cut from the national squad—committed to the 3BL.
The 3BL launched on Saturday, June 9 in New
Delhi. The BFI’s latest ban on these two players came earlier in the same week.
On Friday, Amjyot released a statement
while in Philadelphia in regards to the BFI ban. “I am disappointed with this
action from the BFI,” he said, and added that the altercation between him and
Bhullar at the Commonwealth Games occurred in the “normal course of practice”.
“I am the last person to indulge in any
alleged violence and my reaction was only in self-defence… I feel that my
actions do not even remotely warrant a one-year ban as imposed by the BFI.”
Amjyot also denied Sharma’s allegations
that he was trying to break the team up in factions. “I strive to be selfless
and a complete team player both on and off the court and I am confident that
majority of the players who have interacted or played with me will tell you the
same.”
“This one-year ban has taken away the
opportunity to represent my country at the international level… I am always
ready to play for my country and will be privileged to do so if called upon by
the BFI in the future.”
Regardless of how this messy situation
untangles, one thing is for sure: the years of over-reaction has proven that
the BFI has to mature and react appropriately to competition—like the 3BL—and
small infractions. But for now, the federation’s ban will hurt the team’s
immediate future and push young players and outside investors from losing faith
in the system.
For years, those outside the Indian
basketball world have wondered how a country with such a large population has
never reached its potential in basketball (and many other sports). Part of the
reason for this failure has been on display in this saga. The federation needs
to realise that basketball growth will not be a simple lay-up; it will be messy
and unpredictable, it will be full of hiccups, and it will sometimes happen
without their permission. Sometimes outside competition will spur on this
growth, and sometimes our star players will find new opportunities for
themselves that might clash with the federation’s path. For basketball’s sake
in India, the BFI has to get used to this unpredictability instead of trying to
control or suppress it.
If Amjyot and Palpreet truly deserve to be
discipline, then they should definitely be handed a reasonable punishment. The
players need to keep the federation happy, and the federation needs to do the
same for the players.
A reaction like this, however—a groaning repeat
of history—is only going to suppress the sport. The sport is bigger than the
federation, and all sides must get over their infighting and work together to
help India reach its hoops potential.
