India's Men squad head to Chinese Taipei for 2017 William Jones Cup: Roster, Schedule, Preview

India's big summer of international basketball action continues. After the women's team's experiences at the William Jones Cup last week, the Senior Men's squad will have their chance at the prestigious invitational tournament in Chinese Taipei. Under a new, experienced head coach, but minus several of our top players, India heads to Chinese Taipei for the 2017 William Jones Cup - the Men's tournament - to be held from July 15-23 at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium in Taipei. The tournament will serve as crucial practice for India as they prepare for the summer's biggest extravaganza: next month's FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon.

India's squad from the 2017 BRICS Games last month

This year's large fray of the round robin championship will feature ten teams, including international squads from Asia and a couple of club teams from the rest of the world. India's schedule will be jam-packed, with nine games in nine consecutive days. Participating teams include two host Chinese Taipei teams, Asian champions Iran, Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Iraq, and club sides from Lithuania and Canada.

Last year's the Philippines' club squad Mighty Sports won the William Jones Cup. India showed potential but finished with a 1-7 record. Memorably, a couple of important Indian players arrived late to Chinese Taipei because of a visa issue.

India will not be held back by visa problems this year, but injuries and travel will reduce the team to a more depleted squad, compared to what the coaching staff will hope will be the full team for Lebanon. India is being led by Rikin Pethani as captain and will feature international star Amjyot Singh. Missing from action will be Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Yadwinder Singh (injury) and Amritpal Singh, Palpreet Singh, and Satnam Singh (busy with international club obligations). Their absence will give other veterans and up-and-comers like Pratham Singh, Basil Philip, Prudhvi Reddy, Baladhaneshwar Poiyamozhi, Gurvinder Singh Gill, and Prasanna Sivakumar a chance to shine.

All the spotlight, however, will be on Phil Weber, newly-hired coach of the Indian Men squad - even though at the time of writing, the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) is set to finalise his contract or make an official announcement. Weber is an experienced NBA assistant coach who is currently working for the New Orleans Pelicans alongside Alvin Gentry and has worked in the past for the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks. This will be the first opportunity for Weber to put to test about ten days of practice time with the national team and get an idea of how India will shape up against top-ranked teams from the region (and beyond). Assisting him in India's coaching staff will be experienced national coaches Bhaskar Sappaniambalam and Sebastian Padipurakkal Joseph.

India Men's roster for 2017 William Jones Cup

• Prudhvi Reddy
• Anil Kumar Gowda
• Arjun Singh
• Pratham Singh
• Basil Philip
• Jeevanantham Pandi
• Rikin Pethani - captain
• Amjyot Singh
• Baladhaneshwar Poiyamozhi
• Gurvinder Singh Gill
• Prasanna Venkatesh
• Muin Bek Hafeez
• Head Coach: Phil Weber
• Assistant Coach: Bhaskar Sappaniambalam
• Assistant Coach: Sebastian Padipurakkal Joseph
• Manager: Devender Kumar

India Men's schedule for 2017 William Jones Cup - all timings IST

• July 15 - Iraq vs. India - 8:30 AM
• July 16 - India vs. South Korea - 8:30 AM
• July 17 - Chinese Taipei Blue vs. India - 4:30 PM
• July 18 - India vs. Iran - 12:30 PM
• July 19 - Atletas All-Star Lithuania vs. India - 8:30 AM
• July 20 - India vs. Chinese Taipei White - 12:30 PM
• July 21 - 3D Canada vs. India - 8:30 AM
• July 22 - India vs. Philippines - 10:30 AM
• July 23 - India vs. Japan - 12:30 PM

India's last international outing was at the 2017 BRICS Games in Guangzhou, China, from where they returned with a 0-3 record. Without Amritpal and Bhriguvanshi on the roster for the William Jones Cup, a lot of hopes will be on Amjyot Singh to be India's star man. Coach Weber will be putting a lot of trust on relatively inexperienced role players beyond the core of Amjyot, Pethani, Pratham, and Venkatesh, but that is why a tournament like this can be crucial to help the team get big match practice.

India's most winnable challenge will be in their very first game, against Iraq. The rest of the national teams are ranked higher than India and the club squads are likely to post a major threat, too. Playing against Iran will give India a good idea of the team they are also scheduled to face in their preliminary round stage at the FIBA Asia Cup.

The 2017 FIBA Asia Cup will be the biggest-ever iteration of the event, featuring the top teams from both the Asia and Oceania regions, held from August 8-20 in Beirut, Lebanon. India are in Group A of the tournament with defending champions Iran, Jordan, and Syria. Hopefully, Weber and the team are able to learn important lessons at the William Jones Cup over the next ten days and have a full, healthy squad available for the bigger challenge ahead.

Indian Senior Men’s Basketball team returns to the prestigious William Jones Cup in Taipei

Held since 1977, the William Jones Cup in Chinese Taipei is one of the most prestigious international basketball tournaments in Asia, an invitational championship that is both a source of pride and an important warm-up run for bigger FIBA Asia basketball events. After 11 long years, India Men's basketball team will finally make a return to the tournament this year.

Nine teams - a mix of international, clubs, and college - will take part in the 38th William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament at the Hsinchuang Gymnasium in the city of Taipei from 23 to 31 July. The matches will be played in a round robin league format, with each team playing 8 matches. The team with the best record will be crowned champions.

This tournament will give India the opportunity to gain valuable exposure ahead of the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge, which is set to be held in Iran next month. The Indian lineup remains largely unchanged from the team that won the SABA Qualifiers earlier this month in Bengaluru, except for the return of star forward Amjyot Singh and the inclusion of Tamil Nadu’s Prasanna Venkatesh. Amrit Pal Singh will again take the captain's mantle for India and will be joined in the flanks with star Vishesh Bhriguvanshi. The team will be coached by Sebastian Padipurakkal Joseph.

"Being a prestigious tournament, the Indian men’s team got an invitation from the Taipei Basketball Association," said K Govindraj, the President of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) during the kit distribution ceremony at the Kanteerava Stadium Complex in Bengaluru earlier this afternoon on Thursday, "This will be excellent exposure for all our players who can correct themselves keeping in mind the upcoming FIBA Asia Challenge." Also present at the ceremony to convey his best wishes to the departing contingent was newly appointed Superintendent of Police & Director, Youth Empowerment & Sports Department, Bengaluru, Anupam Agarwal.

"It is going to be a great opportunity for us to prepare for the upcoming FIBA Asia Challenge," said Assistant Coach CV Sunny, "In all our positions, we have excellent depth and our chances are bright, so we can definitely put up a good fight against all the teams."

Participating Teams: Egypt, Iran, India, Japan, Korea, Mighty Sports (Philippines), California State University (USA), China, China B.

Indian Squad for the 38th William Jones Cup 2016

• Arshpreet Singh Bhullar
• Amjyot Singh
• Vishesh Bhriguvanshi
• Amrit Pal Singh Captain
• Basil Philip
• Rikin Pethani(
• Aravind Annadurai
• Arvind Arumugam
• Ravi Bhardwaj
• Akilan Pari
• TJ Sahi
• Prasanna Ventakesh
• Head Coach: Sebastian Padipurakkal Joseph
• Coach: CV Sunny
• Physiotherapist: Navaneeth Atholi Thiruvoth
• Manager: Chengalraya Naidu Talipinani

This is an impressive-looking Indian squad, and the addition of Amjyot can definitely help India achieve something special. Amjyot and India's captain Amrit Pal played last season for Japan D-League's Tokyo Excellence and helped guide them to a third-consecutive title. The last time Amjyot donned India colours, he was one of the top performers at the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship finishing among the top 5 in scorers (20 ppg), and among the top ten in rebounds (8.3 rpg), blocks (1.1 bpg), efficiency (+17.1), and freethrow percentage (73.1 FT%). India has an interesting core of youth (Ravi Bhardwaj, Arshpreet Bhullar) and experience (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Prasanna Venkatesh). Explosive point guard TJ Sahi continues his return to the national scene. Talented young big men like Rikin Pethani, Aravind Annadurai, and Bhardwaj will also make India one of the longest teams at the tournament. India has long needed this type of exposure tournaments before bigger FIBA Asia clashes - the William Jones Cup will provide the team with the perfect platform to fine-tune their chemistry and cause some shocks at the Asian stage.

Team India's Schedule - All timings IST

• India vs California State University – 23rd July, 12:30 PM
• India vs Japan – 24th July, 12:30 PM
• India vs China – 25th July, 4:30 PM
• India vs Korea – 26th July, 12:30 PM
• India vs Egypt – 27th July, 10:30 AM
• India vs Mighty Sports – 28th July, 10:30 AM
• India vs China B – 29th July, 10:30 AM
• India vs Iran – 31st July, 10:30 AM

The schedule, as you can see, is relentless. All the teams will play in eight games in nine days, which is sure to take a toll on the players by the end of the tournament. On paper, India is the lowest rank national team, and the other squads from the USA, Philippines, and China will also prove to be huge challenges for the Young Cagers. Hopefully India can avoid injuries, post a respectable finish, and be in decent health and form for the FIBA Asia Challenge next month.

The William Jones Cup is a prestigious annual invitational tournament, the inaugural edition of which was held in 1977. The Cup was conceived and named to honour Dr. Renato William Jones, who served as one of the founders of FIBA and served as its first Secretary General for 44 years. Iran is the tournament's defending champion, while the team from the USA has been the most successful in the competition, with 15 gold medal finishes. The last time the Indian men’s team competed at the William Jones Cup was way back in 2005. The Indian Women's team, however, played in the 2011 and 2012 editions of the Cup.

Three Indian players at Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp in Taipei

Every year, a small number of the most talented young basketball players blessed with star potential are invited to one of the NBA and FIBA organized 'Basketball Without Borders' (BWB) camps around the world. This year, for the first time, the Basketball Without Borders Asia camp is being held in Taipei, Taiwan. A small group of current and former NBA players are set to be at the helm of this camp, overseeing and training the future generation of Asian and Oceania stars, a generation that consists of three players who have been invited from India: Vishal Gupta (Andhra Pradesh), Ashish Briggs (Madhya Pradesh), and Mahipal Singh (Rajasthan).

Photo courtesy: Troy Justice

The camp is being held in Taipei from June 13-16 this year. NBA players invited to the camp include Nicolas Batum (Portland Trail Blazers), John Salmons (Toronto Raptors), Ronny Turiaf (Minnesota Timberwolves), and Cody Zeller (Charlotte Bobcats). The biggest presence - literally and figuratively - will be of NBA Legend Yao Ming. Yao is the greatest Asian to ever play the game, was the cornerstone of China's national team, and played nine years with the Houston Rockets.

Gupta, Briggs, and Singh will be among 50 of the top young players from Asia and Oceania. The Business Standard interviewed some of the Indian players prior to the beginning of the camp:

"Training at the BWB camp will make a lot of difference in my style of play, and it will be an unparalleled experience to interact with NBA legend Yao Ming and the other stars making their way to the camp," said Gupta.
"Hailing from a small town like Ujjain, one can only dream of visiting such international camps and learning the technical aspects of the game from the best players in the world. I can't wait to be there and learn as much I can in those four days," said Briggs.

This year, BWB camps have already been held in Rome and Italy. The last camp is scheduled to be held in South Africa in the first week of August.

Iran Men win 3rd straight William Jones Cup

Iran Men's team beat Korea 66-59 in the final of the 2011 William Jones Basketball Tournament at the Sinjhuang Stadium in Taipei (Chinese Taipei) on Sunday, August 14 to notch their third consecutive top place finish at the tournament.


Iran finished the tournament with a 7-2 record. A dominating performance by Iran's superstar Hamed Ehadadi sealed the deal in the final game, as he scored 35 points and grabbed 18 rebounds. Korea took a three point lead in the first half, but a resurgent Iran performance after the break saw them overturn the score to win the tie. Jinzhou Cheng led Korea with 19 points.

Philippines won the third-place match-up against hosts Chinese Taipei, outmuscling their way to a 82-72 win on Sunday.

Iran had won the William Jones Cup in its last two editions. The women's competition, in which the Indian team participated, concluded 10 days ago with the host team Chinese Taipei finishing at first place.

An NBA preseason game in India? Dream on...

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The NBA is a very rich league, a league much richer than other sporting leagues in North America, and a huge reason for this is that the NBA is a lot more famous internationally. There are three major reasons for this:
1) Basketball is the one sport that both North Americans and the majority of the rest of the world understand and enjoy.
2) There once lived a man named Michael Jordan who was the biggest thing since basketball itself.
3) NBA commissioner David Stern is a shrewd man - and ever since he took the role of commissioner in 1984, the one thing that the NBA has done best is spread the game to other parts of the world while at the same time feature more and more international players in their own league.
Let's focus on point number 3: there are countless examples of the NBA's efforts to promote itself to a far greater international audience than just those in North America. Outside the US and Canada, NBA games are regularly broadcasted live in at least 31 more countries around the world. The recent All-Star game was broadcasted in 215 countries in 41 languages! The NBA has set up a dedicated 'Global' page to showcase its efforts around the world, and it has global websites in Brazil, France, India, Taiwan, Canada, Germany, China, Japan, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, and the UK. There were 83 international players from 36 different countries on NBA rosters to start the 2009-10 NBA season.
And then its the NBA's outreach and grassroots events in other countries that continue to make them the ubiquitous name in basketball. The Basketball Without Borders (BWB) programme has served as "has served as a summer camp for young people designed to promote friendship, goodwill and education through sport." BWB have been to India, too, and as you may know, the NBA has teamed up with Mahindra to start a recreational league in three Indian cities this summer. Programmes such as BWB have also encouraged current and former NBA players to visit other countries, including India.
So where do we go from here? In most countries, usually the NBA's next step has been the most interesting one - organizing preaseason games featuring NBA teams on foreign soil. The NBA has been holding games exhibition games in Europe for several years already, and recently announced that the Lakers, Knicks, and T'Wolves will be playing again in Europe this October.

Even Asia has had its share of NBA action: The NBA has played six games in Japan since the 1990s, and has held preseason games in China since 2004, after Chinese star Yao Ming joined the Houston Rockets in 2002: the first game obviously featured the Yao-powered rockets against the Sacramento Kings. In 2009, when the Nuggets met the Pacers in Taipei, it became the eight Asian city to host either an NBA regular season or preseason game, along with Tokyo, Yokohama, and Saitama in Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China; and Macau.
You know where this train of thought of heading... an NBA game in India? FUGGEDABOUDIT! What is the one thing in common amongst all the other countries that we lack back home in India? We have the money if someone chooses to spend it (for proof, see IPL). Our extra large population ensures that even a small percentage of NBA fans make up for enough to provide enough audience for any game. And the IPL has proven that we have the technological, energy and security infrastructure to host large sporting events.

No, what we really lack back here are good, ol-fashioned arenas! Not the kind of sharp-shooting, gun-toting Arenas that plays for the former Washington Bullets; no, I mean actual, international quality indoor basketball courts, made of good quality, polished hardwood (or similar surface), with fiberglass boards, and the capability to hold a large-capacity audience. Yes, there are some new courts around the country now which come close, but we're talking NBA-quality here, people! Yes, the NBA has brought in everyone from AC Green to Dikembe Mutombo opened several courts in India over the past few years, but we're far, far hehind.
Hell, even the Indian national team has to practice on shoddy surfaces most of the time. One of the biggest complains is that the best players in India play most of their basketball on concrete courts with rubber balls, and so when they move on to play on a hardwood court with a leather basketball they are constantly struggling to adjust. Even the men's national team members that have been training with JD Walsh, Craig Esherick, and Dr. Bob Baker in Bangalore have had to work in embarassing facilities.
I'm sorry, but there's no way that David Stern is going to allow his preciously talented millionaire NBA stars to break a sweat in any of our Indian courts.
Who knows, maybe the Reliance-IMG alliance to develop sports facilities in India will change things in the future. The extremely distant future. Otherwise, no, no chance in hell.
Go ahead, David Stern, NBA, Reliance... prove me wrong.

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