With convincing wins over South Asian rivals last month, India were able to qualify once again for the FIBA Asia Cup, the most prestigious of Asian basketball tournaments, set to be held in Lebanon in August. In Lebanon, India will face much stiffer competition than the teams we defeated in the SABA Championship, and to be prepared to take on the best in the continent, India desperately needed some match practice at the highest level.
The BRICS Games 2017, held in Guangzhou, China over the past week, turned out to be the best "mini" exposure that Indian basketball could have asked for, even though the results and news did not go entirely India's way. India took part in the four-team basketball tournament between June 18-20, where they sent out almost a full-strength lineup led by stars by Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Amjyot Singh. Against much tougher competition, however, India lost all three of their round-robin games to finish at the bottom of the group. Meanwhile Russia - the 9th ranked team in the world - finished with a perfect 3-0 record to win the championship.
The BRICS Games 2017 is a tournament played among the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) with a view to developing sports exchange and cooperation, and promoting mutual friendship. The host country of the BRICS summit organises the annual BRICS Games annually - this year's BRICS summit will be held in China in September.
India's first matchup was against China, the top-ranked team in Asia and the hosts of the tournament. Despite a promising start and an impressive 26-point outing by star Amjyot Singh, India couldn't keep up with the Chinese in the second half and succumbed to a 97-57 defeat. To add insult to injury, India's star guard Vishesh Bhriguvanshi suffered an ACL injury, keeping him out for the rest of the tournament and likely ruling him out of the FIBA Asia Cup, too.
India were also missing their excellent big man Amritpal Singh, who has recently been called up for a tour in China with the Australian NBL squad Sydney Kings. Without Amritpal and Vishesh, India did not stand much of a chance against eventual winners Russia in their second game, which they lost 88-58.
India, however, will be disappointed about their closing matchup against South Africa, who are a talented squad but ranked much lower than India in the FIBA rankings. Despite a better effort, India couldn't keep up with South Africa's offensive pace and fell to their third straight defeat, 88-75.
Final Rankings - 2017 BRICS Games Men's Basketball
1. Russia
2. China
3. South Africa
4. India
India now has than two months left before the start of the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup. Although our big guys like Amjyot Singh, Amritpal Singh, and perhaps even the returning Satnam Singh could give us a formidable frontcourt, India's concern will be with the backcourt situation - which is already been a weak point in our national system - without the leadership and talent of Bhriguvanshi. Hopefully, there can be some positives taken for head coach Sappaniambalam Baskar from the BRICS Games experience and India can make a better impression at the Asia Cup.
In two months, India will once again step out to compete in the most prestigious basketball event they take part in, the 2017 FIBA Asia Cup in Lebanon. Despite being a rising basketball force in the continent, India has only recently begun to climb up the ladder in Asian championships. Last year, at the FIBA Asia Challenge, India finished at 7th place after their best international performance in 27-years. India now has the star-power, the hunger for success, and ample preparation for this year's big FIBA event.
But practice is practice, and as the great Allen Iverson would say, it's "not a game". India needs true in-game experience to be in the best shape and form possible. A few weeks ago, India completed a historic 5-peat at the South Asian Basketball Championship to qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup. Now, with greater competition in the horizon, India has an exciting new opportunity for high-level competition before heading to Lebanon.
From June 17-21, India's Senior Men's Basketball team will be heading to the metropolis of Guangzhou in South China to take part in the 2017 BRICS Games. The "Young Cagers", along with the country's U20 Women's Volleyball Team and the Men and Women's Wushu teams will form the Indian contingent participating in the Games.
The BRICS Games 2017 is a tournament played among the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) with a view to developing sports exchange and cooperation, and promoting mutual friendship. The host country of the BRICS summit organises the annual BRICS Games annually - this year's BRICS summit will be held in China in September. The choices of the games at the event differs each year. The basketball championship this year will be held in Round Robin format, with the best record declared the winner - India's match schedule will be announced soon. The potential to play high-ranking international teams like Russia, China, and Brazil should give India much-needed basketball exposure against elite talent.
India will be heading to Guangzhou with a strong squad coached by Sappaniambalam Baskar and headlined by Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Amjyot Singh (who will return to the team after missing the SABA Championship), Yadwinder Singh, Akilan Pari, Rikin Pethani, and more. The big name missing this lineup is centre Amritpal Singh, who was a big part of India's SABA Championship victory but is unavailable since he has been invited to Australia to take part in the rookie camp for the Sydney Kings.
It's the summer of Africa for the NBA. Many of the league's heavyweights - players, coaches, and the commissioner - are in South Africa for the first-ever exhibition game in the continent, set to be held between 'Team Africa' and 'Team World' tomorrow in Johannesburg. The NBA continues to expand its borders and continues to prove that basketball can truly transcend all languages, cultures, and continents.
And India are tasting some of that potjiekos, too.
The NBA has selected six coaches from India to take part in the 13th Basketball Without Borders (BWB) programme at the American International School of Johannesburg, South Africa from July 29 - August 1. The troop of coaches are being guided by Carlos Barroca, the Senior Director of NBA India.
The coaches Mal Singh from Guru Harkishan Das Public School (Ludhiana), Jeevan Raj from CMS Public School (Kochi), Varun Ahlawat from Delhi Public School, Vasundhara (New Delhi), Anahita Gupta from Modern School for Girls (Kolkata), Digambar Mali from Fr. Agnels School, Vashi (Mumbai) and Udhayakumar from Lady Andal Venkatasubbarao High School (Chennai) have been selected for the programme. Their selection was made on the basis of number of students they engaged, the number of basketball led classes they conducted and their overall involvement with the program.
"The teachers did a great job in India and are here at BWB Africa to continue to learn and enhance their basketball training skills with the best coaches/trainers from around the world," said Barroca, "They will also view the NBA Africa Game - which will be a once in a lifetime experience for them."
While the eyes of most of the world will be on Chris Paul, Luol Deng, the Gasol brothers, and other current and former stars at the NBA Africa Game, the BWB programme will prove that the NBA is invested in not only promoting the very best that the sport has to offer, but also to help develop basketball at the grassroots level. The exchange of international coaching ideas and the vibrant energy in Johannesburg is sure to help these Indian coaches; hopefully, they can pass on that energy, the fundamentals, and the coaching styles that they learn to students back home in India.
When the first ever Youth Olympic Games (YOG) took place in Singapore earlier this year, there was no sign of a proper basketball tournament. I use "proper basketball" deliberately, because the tournament showcased the large scale debut of FIBA's latest brainchild, the FIBA 33.
Maybe I used correct the "latest brainchild" statement - after all, every ball player alive (no really, EVERY ball player alive) has played a less formalised version of FIBA 33. If you don't know, FIBA 33 is half-court basketball, played 3-on-3, first one to 33 in regulation time wins. Regulation time is just 10 minutes (with five minute halves), and if no team reaches 33, the one leading when time expires wins. Each team has three players plus one substitute. There is just a 10 second shot-clock, and like the international unspoken rules of basketball half-court play, if the defensive team gains possession of the ball, they have to first pass it outside the three-point arc before starting their offense.
It sounds suspiciously like every pick-up game ever played, except with referees and timers - plus I'm not sure if FIBA would be too hot on the Shirts vs. Skins idea.
Anyways, due to the fast-paced and exciting nature of the game, it was a roaring success at the YOG, capturing the largest (and loudest) crowds. Even India had a four-member squad present at the games - they failed to win any of their group games, but beat a couple of teams in the 17-20 classification to end at 18th spot.
The success prompted FIBA to discuss the format at the FIBA World Conference in Istanbul during the World Championships. Now, FIBA are hoping to take the 3-on-3 format to a bigger stage.
“We are all very excited about FIBA33, and in view of its popularity after just one day, it isn’t too far fetched to imagine it one day making it into the Olympics in its own right,” said FIBA Secretary-General Patrick Baumann.
Baumann has even said: "The US will always be able to have 12 players of the same quality which India would not be able to have. But India can have three, four or five players who can play three-on-three and they will be at the same level as the US"
FIBA president Bob Elphinston has added: "We want to use FIBA 33 to encourage more young girls and boys to play the game, to get started in basketball. We also want to create FIBA 33 as a separate discipline, not dissimilar to what we see at the Olympic Games with volleyball, in that we have beach volleyball and we have volleyball."
Is there anyone else here who thinks this new concept sounds a bit too familiar? Let's see, what is that one sport in India that involves a lot of players and goes on for five days? There is a one-day version of that sport, too, but it goes on for hours and hours. People love this sport in our country but the organisers and some fans (but mainly, the advertisers) felt the show was too long and too slow to be enjoy / capitalised on fully. So they introduced a much shorter version of the game, inspired by the version played on the grass-root level, and gave it a nifty name with a two-digit number and soon, this version became so big and popular that those who fell in love with the original version of the sport said that the new version was killing it.
I'm talking of course of cricket - After the Test format and ODI format was deemed 'too slow' for some fans, in came Twenty-20 cricket, with just 20 over games to satisfy all our cricketing needs in under three hours. T-20 has become a phenomenon since, and its league in India, the IPL, has become almost as lucrative as football's EPL and basketball's NBA.
But T-20 critics are aplenty - many have complained that it has killed the soul of the game, or that it encourages pinch-hitting cricket without the classic technical skills, that it has become more of a spectacle than a sport.
Whatever side you take on this argument, it is clear that T-20 is here to stay. Now, FIBA 33 is a similar story in many ways. Of course, basketball's long format is about the same length as cricket's short one, but the intention in both cases is to serve the needs of the our collectively shortening attention spans (I'd be surprised if many readers have actually attentively made it this far down in this article!). Just like T-20, FIBA goes back to the grass-roots of the game, thus perhaps encouraging more participation.
But this is where we feel that FIBA needs to be careful. The 3-on-3 format encourages the one thing that many basketball purists detest - the 'I' not in 'Team'. Shanmugam Sridhar, the coach of India's 3-on-3 team that played in Singapore, said: "The 3-on-3 format made for very quick games. It especially helped in showcasing the talents of individual players."
Just like cricket purists have complained that T-20 has "dumbed-down" the game, FIBA 33 critics too may claim that the new format might be a too simplistic version to feature on the big stage.
On the positive note though, T-20 has been good for other formats of cricket in one way - by changing the player's attitude towards greater aggression, and of course, serving as a good platform for youngsters to prove their mettle for the "more respected" versions of the games.
FIBA 33 scores big in the fact that it will be able to involve more countries, since they will be required to field lesser players. India's involvement in the tournament in Singapore proved just that. Also, quicker games would mean greater participation. And both T-20 and FIBA 33 have been great crowd-pullers, so why not just give the people what they want?
Which side of the fence do you sit on with this issue? And while you mull over it, here is a video of the Indian three-on-three team at the Youth Olympics in their 27-11 win over South Africa.
The Indian youth basketball team may have come back from the Singapore Youth Olympic Games (YOG) with a losing record, but gained valuable experience playing with youngsters from some of the top hoop countries in the world, as well as became part of a select few countries to play in FIBA's new 3-on-3 form on an official world stage.
Four Indian youth players – Shyam Sunder (Chhattigarh), Sukhjeet (Delhi), Amit Kanarjee (Madhya Pradesh), and Kirti Goswami (Madhya Pradesh) – represented India in the basketball tournament at the YOG. The four youngsters were accompanied to Singapore by their coach Shanmugam Sridhar. The team finished 18th out of the 20 participants.
Each game in the tournament was set to be 15 minutes long, with three quick five minute periods. The first team to 33 or the team that is leading at the end of regulation time wins. It was a fast-paced affair since each possession was only allowed a 10-second shot clock and a shot could only be pulled up after at least two passes per possession.
"This competition was a great experience for these youngsters," said Sridhar, "The YOG is a big competition. All the players performed well – we always managed to keep the games close in the first half before conceding heavily in the end. I think we would have performed better had we had taller players."
India were pitted in a group with Puerto Rico, Greece, New Zealand, and Gold Medal winners Serbia. Although they lost all their group games, they fared well in the 17th-20th place playoffs, beating Panama and South Africa before losing to hosts Singapore in the finale. Another positive was that the team showed an improved performance after every result until their last game.
Kirti Goswami was the leading scorer of India, pitching in 47 points over the seven games, at an average of 6.71 ppg. Goswami also received third place in a shooting competition held at the YOG.
"The 3-on-3 format made for very quick games," added Sridhar, "It especially helped in showcasing the talent's of individual players."
The complete results were:
Boys Preliminary Group A
- India – Puerto Rico: 15-33 - India – Serbia: 19-33 - India – Greece: 20-33 - India – New Zealand: 12-17
Boys Round Robin 17-20
- India – Panama: 28-22 - India – South Africa: 27-11 - India – Singapore: 20-31
The Boys' Gold was won by Serbia, who beat Croatia 22-9 in the Final.
Here's a video with highlights of India's win over South Africa
