Indian School Basketball League is set to tip off in 16 states across India in August 2016

After a gap of one year, India's biggest official school basketball tournament - the Indian School Basketball League (ISBL) is set to make a return to 16 states around the country from August 2016. In a special press conference in Bengaluru on Thursday, the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) announced that this season's ISBL will play out approximately 1,856 matches over a 2-3 month period, culminating in a National Finals to be held in one of the participating states/cities. The 2016 season will only feature the ISBL; the Indian College Basketball League (ICBL) continues to face its hiatus for now.

In a press conference headed by President K Govindaraj, Secretary-General Chander Mukhi Sharma, and Senior Vice President Teja Singh Dhaliwal, the BFI announced that the 2016 edition will create a structured, self-sustaining, pan-India School League, which will serve as the platform to increase organised basketball participation at grassroots level and subsequently become a talent development/feeder system for the Indian National Teams. Eventually, the aim is for this league to also become a talent development platform for the future Professional Basketball League in India. This decision was taken after the Steering Committee of the BFI met on July 6 to finalize the details of the league.

Participating States in the 2016 ISBL: Punjab, Chandigarh. Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram.

In each state, 12 to 16 teams for each gender will be divided into four groups (in 2014, 24 cities took part). For some states, this year of the league will focus on teams from just one city, while others will bring in talent from many different cities in the state. Each team will play home-and-away system within their own group. The top 2 teams from each group will play a State Final, and the winner will eventually be invited to the National Championship. The prize money is set at Rs. 1 lakh in each participating state.

In a press release, the BFI announced that creating a hierarchical system of basketball participation that starts with the school leagues will be key to the long-term growth of basketball across India. To ensure the sustenance of the leagues, it is imperative to start small, focusing on the high basketball potential cities, perfecting the operations while showing its value and potential to the community, and then slowly transitioning to pan India leagues which include newer basketball cities. The leagues will also serve a vital role in development of school basketball infrastructure and ancillary basketball disciplines as programs will be implemented to develop all areas of the game through this platform.

The 'bottom up' approach is of course different from the UBA Basketball League, who brought together interested players from All India College Championships to a quick launch and are already in their third season. The BFI, who have recently barred UBA players from participating in official national/international basketball events, are taking the big picture, long-term approach to build their way up to a professional league in India. But the start-stop nature and unreliability stemming from BFI's recent conflicts have slowed this process even further. Hopefully, the launch of this massive grassroots programme that the basketball in India is back on the mend from the ground up.

In the press release, the BFI also announced the implementation of the new FIBA Competition System, and the tentative schedules for future national basketball championships. The 33rd Youth National Basketball Championship will be held in Hassan (Karnataka) in November 2016 and the 67th Senior National Basketball Championship will be in Pondicherry from January 7-14, 2017.

Tripura teams crosses 2,000 kilometers to head straight to the basketball court.

I had requested an interview with Md. Makara Dush Ali, the head coach of the Tripura Junior Boys Basketball team,and some of the players,right after their first match at the Junior National Championships at Vashi. Naturally, I had expected the players and the coach to be a little fatigued after the game against Pondicherry.

Considering the journey this team had been through,'fatigue' is a masterful understatement.


"We have come a long way," Ali lamented, both of Tripura's journey into a competent basketball team and the team's actual journey to travel around 2,000 kilometers across most of India's wide breath to reach down to Vashi. The team left their capital of Agartala for a 24-hour bus journey up to Guwahati, Assam. From there,they embarked on an epic 48-hour train journey to Mumbai, and it took them another two hours from Mumbai to Vashi.

The Tripura team arrived at Vashi at 6:00 AM on the morning of Sunday,October 24th. At 9:00 AM that morning,they played their first game.

"The boys were really tired,but they still played hard."

Unfortunately,the fatigued ultimately showed on the team that was already considered to have been one of the weaker squads in the tournament. Tripura was beaten thoroughly by Pondicherry,51-12. Though dejected,the team refused to be in sour spirits.

Other teams from the North-East such as Mizoram, and Meghalaya have also brought their teams across the nation to the tournament in Maharashtra. None of them were thrust into action as soon as Tripura were, but all of them have come determined to enjoy the experience. During the opening ceremony on Sunday night, each of the teams held up their flag high, and some were even represented by young schoolchildren modeling their traditional garb.


For Tripura, the journey to Vashi is just one of the few steps taken towards the long road in national basketball respectability. "In Tripura, gymnastics is the most popular game, but there are still enough people who play basketball," said coach Ali, "The problem is with the infrastructure: we don't have any indoor or synthetic courts (like the one being used at the Fr. Agnel school in Vashi) – so our players practice on concrete courts."

"Another problem is in the players' heights," Ali added, "The population in Tripura is generally shorter,so we struggle to compete with the best in basketball."

The height difference was clearly exploited by their first opponents Pondicherry, who jumped off the gates early and maintained a large lead throughout the game.

Still the team has young players who,despite their short height, will be hoping to showcase their skills at the national level. One of them is Sanjit Sutradhar,a quick,brave guard. "I have been playing basketball for six years," said Sanjit,"I used to live near a basketball court,so it was easy for me to step out and start learning the game."

Despite admittedly being extremely tired for their match on Sunday, Sanjit put up a respectable performance,scoring 10 of his team's 12 points.

Tripura is still looking for its next Ronudeb – the legendary player from the state who made the Indian Junior team in 1985. The state's players haven't been represented on the national teams since, but Coach Ali is hopeful that one day they will produce another basketball superstar from the state.

Until that day, they will keep playing and keep persisting, even if facing tough situations like Sunday,when all they got was a three-hour rest after a three-day trip. For basketball players around the country, the struggle to get to the game will never overshadow the game itself!