India U16s qualify for U16 FIBA Asia Championship

93 points per game. That was the average margin of victory for India's U16 Boys basketball team, as they faced U16 teams from Nepal and Sri Lanka on August 2-3, at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi. The purpose of this slaughter? The three teams were brought together to fight for a spot at the 2nd U16 FIBA Asia Championship, which will be held at Nha Trang City in Vietnam from October 18-28th. India's qualification was never in question, but the full destructive force by which the young stars went about their business was remarkable, indeed.

Here is a complete dissection.

India prepared the best possible team for this competition: The U16 probables had already been in camp in Delhi, preparing for the qualifiers and for the FIBA Asia event later this year, for one and a half months. What this side truly boasted of was experience: in players such as Chhattisgarh's Ajay Pratap Singh, Punjab's Kushmeet Singh and Love Neet Singh, MP's Syed Anam Ali, and Delhi's Narender, India had players who had been superstars in their own right of their age level. Added to this group were two players who are currently on scholarship at the IMG Academy in the USA: Chhattisgarh's guard Sanjeev Kumar, and the biggest name of them all, Punjab's 7-foot-1, 15-year-old giant, Satnam Singh Bhamara.

So when this group, along with several others, took the court to play our hapless neighbours, the results were expectedly lopsided. India defeated Nepal by 98 points in the first game, running and gunning behind seven players who scored in double digits. Ajay Pratap Singh and Love Neet Singh led the scoring with 19 and 18 points respectively. One of the true eye-popping numbers in this game was the score at the end of three quarters: 100-20. The final score, no less impressive: 134-36.

Leading the players from the sidelines were Delhi-based coaches JP Singh, J Nehra, and former Indian Women's superstar Divya Singh. I overheard something interesting from one of the probables that didn't make the squad about Coach Singh: "He said that 'When you're in my team, I have no feeders, no forwards, and no pivot players. You must be ready to play whatever position I ask you to play'." And true to this, most of the players, except for perhaps the bigs Satnam and Rakesh Sangwan, played as fluidly as they possibly could.

In the final against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, India fielded a big starting lineup, where our small forward, Ajay, was perhaps as tall as our opponent's Center (6'4"). On PF was 6'6" Sangwan, and Satnam held on to the Center position.

This was the kind of game that would have basketball scouts salivating on Satnam's potential. Let me make a note here that this was the first time really that I was watching Satnam play competitively against guys of his own age group. Despite the fact that he has represented Punjab at the U18 and India at the Senior level over the past month, he is still only a 15-year-old, and qualified to play for the U16 level, too. After a relatively easy first game (13 points, 3-4 blocks), Satnam EXPLODED against Sri Lanka. His teammates did a good job in getting him the ball, and he rewarded them with aggressive inside offense. Satnam was near-automatic against the hapless defenders once he got the ball inside. In roughly 26 minutes of action, he scored 28 points (barely missing any shots), brought down 8 rebounds, and got three highlight-reel blocks.

The rest of the team, meanwhile, continued dominating like they did a day before. The smaller players like Narender, Kushmeet, and Love Neet were too fast for Sri Lanka, as they caused dozens of turnovers with their full-court press, and on the other end, scored with ease on tireless fast-breaks. India cruised to an 88 point victory in the final, 122-34.

Entry into the U16 FIBA Asia Championship secure, this team now has a lot more time before October to continue improving. If they can keep this core together and motivated, they may well spring a surprise or two against Asia's powerhouses. And even if they don't yet, their play over these two games, albeit against weak competition, has proved that Indian basketball fans can rest assured: the future of the game is bright, indeed!

Here are the scores from the two games:

India vs. Nepal: India (Ajay Pratap Singh 19, Love Neet Singh 18, Satnam Singh Bhamara 13, Akash Bhasin 11, Kushmeet Singh 10, S. Karthickeyan 10, Rakesh Sangwan 10) bt. Nepal 134-36 (33-9, 31-4, 36-7, 34-16).

India vs. Sri Lanka: India (Satnam Singh Bhamara 28, Kushmeet Singh 26, Love Neet Singh 12, Ajay Pratap Singh 11) bt. Sri Lanka (Kenneth W 12, Praveen Ganlath 10) 122-34 (35-11, 29-8, 35-11, 23-4).

Akanksha Singh: Small Wonder

11 years ago, the Varanasi District girls basketball team that was headed for the Under-17 School Nationals in Gorakhpur had a little problem. They only had 11 players on the squad, and needed a 12th from somewhere to complete the roster. They placed their faith on an unproven, small wonder, an 11-year-old who made enough of an impression to bolster her hoops career forever.

‘Bacchi’, the nickname-given to 22-year-old Indian national point guard Akanksha Singh, literally means ‘young girl’. With exceptional performances in over the past year for state, club, or country, Akanksha may have grown into a burgeoning young superstar, but she was only a actually just a little ‘bacchi’ when her life changed.

See, Akanksha comes from a heralded family of Women basketball stars from Varanasi , the ‘Singh Sisters’ – her three older sisters, Priyanka, Divya, and Prashanti had already made a name for themselves on the court. Divya and Prashanti, in particular, had scaled great heights – both had been stars of the Indian Sr. National Women’s team, and both of them had captained the National side at different points.

Growing up in a family of basketball achievers, Akanksha didn’t really have any other choice except to follow their path on to the famed UP College Basketball Court in Varanasi. “Before I started playing, I used to just go bicycling to the court and saw my older sisters playing,” said Akanksha, “The competition and the close games used to excite me a lot. When the next batch of sub-juniors began to play, I joined them, and that’s how I was first introduced to the game.”

But her big break came at the most unexpected of times: Sitting in her Grade VI classroom, the 11-year-old was called out of her class and told that the U17 Varanasi Girl’s team needs a 12th player. Since her older sister Prashanti was in the team, the little Akanksha – at 11, by far the youngest in the team – was taken along.

“That tournament changed my life,” she remembers, “I didn’t get to play too much really, but in a game against Lucknow, the coach surprised me by sending me on the court.”

The tiniest girl on the floor then proceeded to hit a couple of big shots, surprising herself. “I scored just five points,” she said, “But because I was so small everyone loved me for it, and I got excited too! That moment made me really confident that basketball was going to be my game.”

And then the ball got rolling faster: Akanksha practiced harder, and in the next few years, she moved up from Sub-Junior level to Youth level, until she received the next surprise, when she was taken with her older sisters Divya and Prashanti to the Junior (U18) team. Once again, she was an afterthought initially – small in age, experience, and size – but it didn’t stop her from getting her few moments of shine.

She quickly moved up the ranks, surprising herself with her own improvement and growing confident on court. And then the moment arrived that Akanksha remembers as one of the highlights of her young life. “I still remember the first time I was picked to play for India – it was the Indian U18 side,” said Akanksha, “It was the U18 Asian Basketball Championship (ABC) for Women in China. The first time I held my India jersey made me very sentimental!”

That wasn’t the only time that Akanksha felt her emotions nearly getting the best of her. Because guess what? Being in a family full of basketball stars isn’t always peaches and cream. Expectations for success are high, and patience for failure is far too low. With Divya and Prashanti making a name for themselves in the National and International circuit, there was a lot of pressure on Akanksha to follow in their footsteps, prove to the world that she can be in the same class that we have come to expect from the ‘Singh Sisters’. At 5 foot 6, she is also shorter than her older sisters, and like every shorter basketball player, she had to always go a step extra to prove that she belonged. Akanksha admits that, at first, it was a little too much to take. Luckily for her, she transformed that pressure into motivation, practicing further to live up to the billing.

“After my first Junior Nationals, I began to feel the pressure,” she says. “Divya and Prashanti had begun to make a name for themselves. I used to work extra hard because I felt that if I make any mistakes, it would hamper my chances of making the India team.”

But it was the older sisters who came to the aid of Akanksha, helping her regain her confidence. “They had a lot of encouraging things to say to me as I developed,” Akanksha remembers.

Another thing that helped her confidence was her fast-developing skill with the basketball. A common sight during basketball games is the bored look on the faces of some of the bench players, those who have little influence on the outcome of the game. But Akanksha made the most of her time as benchwarmer waiting for her number to be called.

“I used to just sit or stand around the bench while the game was going on with a basketball, and I never stopped dribbling,” she said, “I kept dribbling and dribbling until my handle became a lot better. The coaches used to notice this and then, they began to use me in the end of games, when the opposition played full-court defense on us. I was a good ball-handler in the pressure situations – and that’s how, although my older sisters played the forward positions, I became a point guard.”

The lesson here: even bench-warming can be a learning process!

In 2003, Akanksha Singh made her debut in the Senior Nationals and played for the Uttar Pradesh team when she was just an 11th Grader. “Many of the older girls didn’t take my seriously because I was small, but I always found a way to surprise them!”

In 2004, Akanksha followed her sister’s footsteps into the Delhi team. She had been playing with them a lot as a youngster, and this gave her another chance to play with them and develop a better understanding. As anyone who has ever played regular basketball with a sibling knows, there is a unique experience of understanding and expectations between the two: Siblings tend to understand each other’s movements mentally when the others on court may be a step or two behind, but siblings also judge each other’s mistakes harsher than everyone else on the team.

Akanksha’s experience of playing with her sisters has been no different – whether it has been in pick-up games in Varanasi, National tournament games for Delhi, or international games for India. “I can understand them better, I know their expressions, and get them the ball. I know exactly what they’re going to do.”

And just like her older sister’s mentored her, Akanksha took on the mentor’s role for the youngest, fifth Singh sister, Pratima. “The two of us love to play together,” she said of the 21-year-old, who is now also in the Delhi side, “But I like her to practice playing opposite me so she can get better!”

Suddenly, 2010 became the breakout year for Akanksha Singh, the ‘Small Wonder’. During the month of May, which is considered to be the off-season in Indian basketball, the Mastan League, a first ever professional-style club competition, was organised in Mumbai. “I wanted to play well so people know my name,” Akanksha said, “Even though it was the off-season I didn’t stop practicing. Once the tournament began, the game started to come very easily for me.”

Easy enough that Akanksha walked away with the award for the tournament’s MVP. But she wasn’t done announcing her coming-out party to the Indian basketball world. When India took part in the Asian Games basketball tournament in Guangzhou (China), Akanksha was just one of the smaller stars in the 12-women roster. It was American coach Tamika Raymond, brought to lead India into this competition, who injected another boost of confidence into the youngster, giving her the starting point guard role for the team.

“I wasn’t expecting to start, but Coach Raymond made me work hard to earn it. She began to play me a lot more during the practice sessions – every time there were mistakes with the offense, I was substituted in. I quickly learned that I was being sent in to fix those mistakes, and so I went ahead and did it.”

And suddenly, there was no doubt of her sublime ball-handling and scoring skills anymore – Akanksha responded well and saw her own game elevate to the highest level. She has been on a tear ever since her return from China, becoming a formidable force for Delhi and running the offense like a perfect point guard is supposed to.

And now, for the first time perhaps, Akanksha Singh may be finally established. She is small, but her skills surprise no one anymore. She is one of the 24-women heading for the Indian All Star game in Mumbai in a couple of weeks, and opponents can no longer afford to overlook her talents.

But the youngster is far from done climbing the ladder. She has bigger dreams, for herself and for her country. “I want to be part of a team that finally wins a medal for India. We may not look formidable right now but I don’t think such a feat is impossible. With the right kind of coaching, I think we can reach that summit.”

Coming from someone who has looked up at every summit and then confidently mastered it, experience has now taught us to know better than doubt the ‘Bacchi’s’ ambitions.

RIBA League brings back club basketball to Delhi

With a thunderous in-game dunk, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi brought the rim literally crashing down. It had happened for the second time that day. The on-court action had to take a pause.

Amazingly, even a broken rim is worth the highlight of witnessing a show-stopping dunk. And there has been no shortage of show-stopping highlights at the RIBA League in Delhi this year.

Until about two years ago, there was one prestigious, All-India, basketball club tournament in Delhi, a tournament hosted by the Prithvi Nath Club (PNC). Unfortunately, ever since the PNC court was broken down, the country’s capital has been devoid of a top-level club tournament.

But thanks to the Reebok IGMA Basketball Association (RIBA) League, club basketball is back in Delhi this year: Organised by the IGMA Sports Management company and in affiliation with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), the five-day league-cum-knockout tournament, featuring some of the top basketball players in India, was launched at the DDA Sports Complex in Vasant Kung earlier this week. Eight of the top Men’s club teams in India are taking part in this new competition, which is set to conclude with the Final on March 6th.

“We had only been involved with organising corporate cricket tournaments earlier,” said Rajeev Mahajan, the young Director of IGMA, “But we wanted to expand into other sports. I got the help of some basketball players in Delhi to help set up this tournament.”

Mahajan added: “I had never really followed basketball before, but have been enjoying the intensity of the games here. It has been going well and we want to take this tournament to an even bigger level next year.”

The IGMA was given all the right kind of support in helping set this tournament up: former Indian Women’s basketball captain Divya Singh, her younger sister Akanksha, who is a player in the Delhi team, and many more Delhi players came to the aid of IGMA. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) lent its hand to in organising the event. Sponsorship came via Reebok and ONGC.

“We really wanted to see an established All-India basketball tournament in Delhi,” says Divya, “This year is a trial run – we are hoping to incorporate Women’s teams from next year’s competition.”

The participating teams feature some of the biggest names in Indian basketball. For the first year, Chennai Customs, Air Force, Signals, PNC, Western Railway, Army, RCF, and hosts DDA Sports Club signed up to take part. A pleasant surprise of the tournament so far has been that the participating teams have been extremely competitive against each other – there have barely been any blowouts and most games have been decided in the last minutes, giving the fans some exciting hoops action on the court.

On the first day of the games, a Slam Dunk contest was organised, which was won by Western Railway and Indian National team forward Yadwinder Singh. The dunks have been falling regularly in games and in practice too. The rims get fixed and the action continues!

Just like IGMA have taken a step away from cricket to embrace basketball, so have some of India’s best-known cricketers. Pace bowler Ishant Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan (better known for his stint with the Delhi Daredevils) have been making regular visits to the sidelines of the RIBA League to soak in the hoop action. Sharma, who watched basketball for the first time, has been especially impressed.

And if IGMA continue their promotion in the game, there will be more in the city who will start enjoying it – Mahajan revealed his plans to start a basketball academy in the city. With the right kind of leadership and coaching, we could see a lot more youngsters embracing the game, and one day, hopefully soaring skywards for thunderous dunks of their own!

Delhi showcases its hoops spirit at the Mahindra NBA Challenge

Next to a dusty yet busy basketball court at the Bal Bharti School (Karol Bagh) in New Delhi, a bunch of young adolescents warm up enthusiastically to the beats of rap music from the PA system nearby. The song playing is perhaps rapper Eminem’s most motivated moment on wax, the inspirational ‘Lose Yourself’ from his move 8 Mile.

“You only get one shot, do now miss a chance to blow, cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime.”

The fact that hip-hop music and basketball have been forever brothers-in-arms isn’t exactly breaking news; where there is a strong basketball culture, there seems to be a strong musical culture. Earlier this year, when the Sub-Jr. Nationals were taking place in Kangra, even the little mountain town reverberated with hip-hop beats on the loud-speakers. Any student present at the IMG-Reliance School Basketball league in Delhi would swear that not one game passed without a rap-musical break during a timeout.

Basketball is one of most competitive sports in the world, and perhaps, it is this competitive culture, where you face off your opponent not just to participate but to dominate, which helps the synchronicity of aggressive hip-hop with the game.

With the first season of Mahindra’s NBA Challenge taking place in New Delhi this year, a competitive spark and will to perform has been found in the young hoopsters, spreading across the nation’s capital, and beyond, like wildfire.

The Mahindra NBA Challenge, a multi-city, community-based, basketball league, was held in India for its first season last year in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ludhiana. New Delhi basketball players may have felt a little short-changed with the deal, unable to find a similar outlet for their passion for the game. So for its second season, the NBA gave the masses what it wanted, and in mid-November, the U-18 edition of the league tipped off in New Delhi.

“The response we have been getting in Delhi has been overwhelming,” says Troy Justice, NBA-India’s Director of Basketball Operations, “The players are really passionate, too. We set around an 80-team limit for the registration for this league, and even after all the slots became full, we kept on getting requests for nearly twice as many participants. It is so busy here that every weekend we are playing game after game all day in our various venues (Bal Bharti School and DPS-RK Puram). And people say that basketball isn’t popular in India!”

In the U-18 edition of the league, there have been further divisions into sections of Junior (U18), Youth (16), and for the first time, Sub-Junior (U14). Justice is most excited about the youngest participants, the sub-juniors, who are getting a taste of competitive basketball action early into their development.

“I have had a great experience when working with the sub-juniors,” Justice adds, “Those are some of my favourite games to watch, since these youngsters truly represent the future of Indian basketball.”

The sub-juniors participating have also been happy about this opportunity. “The tournament has been really good so far,” says 13-year-old Taksh Sharma from Mount Carmel School (Dwarka), “I have been playing basketball for one year, and I’m happy that this league has come to Delhi.”

Justice has been impressed by the talent he has been overseeing in Delhi. “I can tell that the players in Delhi have received good coaching,” he says, “There are many here with very high basketball IQ. Many of them, even at a young age, seem refined and experienced.”

One of Justice’s favourite squads is a team from Jammu, whose story is a true inspiration for hoop-heads: The Jammu squad, a group of close friends, travel 12 hours every weekend to New Delhi to take part in the league. And at the end of the day, they take another 12 hours to get back home in time for school on Monday!

As of now, Justice is dividing his time between Delhi and Mumbai every alternate weekend. The U-18 Mahindra NBA Challenge tipped off in Mumbai simultaneously with Delhi. In mid-January, both cities will host the senior, open version of the league.

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has also been actively involved in assisting the NBA with the implementation of these leagues. Justice has commended the professional attitude of the referees who have been assisting him, and especially for Indian basketball’s youth brigade, the trio of Shiba Maggon, Divya Singh, and Yuvika Sharma, who have assisted the NBA in various management issues.

A legendary Indian player, coach, and referee, Shiba has stated that being a part of this league has taught her a lot more about basketball “off the court.” “This has been a great learning experience for me,” she says, “The kids in Delhi are very enthusiastic about what has been happening, and I can see improvement in their game every week.”

Shiba has added that this improvement was especially visible amongst the sub-juniors, the youngest in action, as they are truly beginning to understand the spirit of basketball.

Both the Delhi and Mumbai leagues are now entering their final stages. On Thursday, December 16, DPS Vasant Kunj will host the All-Star games for all the different divisions (boys and girls for sub-juniors, youth, and juniors). The best of North Delhi and South Delhi will battle it out on the basketball court. The league will move to the Semi-Finals at DPS Vasant Kunj on Friday, and finally, the Finals, starting on 3 PM at the same venue on Saturday afternoon. A shooting contest will also be held between the games to top off the hoop festivities.

The All-Star Games and Finals for Mumbai will be held over this week, too.

With the success of this first-time event in Delhi, Justice is already looking ahead, hoping to smooth out all the creases for the future. “Right now, our biggest problem was a good problem – that there was too much interest!” he says, “As the NBA grows in India, this programme will grow bigger, too. Although the current infrastructure that we have cannot accommodate any more teams, we are looking to expand in the future and allow more and more players to play basketball.

For now, the participants in the Delhi league will be focused on their last few games: the All Star game, the semis, and the Final. This is their opportunity, their shot at basketball success, the time when the rap music blares and motivates them to dominate.

But more than anything, this is their one shot to just go out and play ball. Delhi and Mumbai have gotten their taste of the NBA Challenge, and the leagues in Bangalore, Ludhiana, and first-timers Chennai won’t be too far behind over this year.

The Indian Basketball Fan

A cliché about India is that the country this vast size and population has "all types of everything." It is a country of a thousand religions, tribes, languages, languages, but most importantly, tens of thousands (or millions) distinctly different opinions.

And the same holds true for basketball. India has a rapidly growing basketball community - Basketball is the second fastest growing sport in India (after football) with four million Indians playing the game, and of course countless others who are involved in the game as administrators or as fans. With such a large and rapidly growing population, it is hard to classify the types of fans, but here I would like to give it a real go! (Thank you JD Walsh, by the way, for that awesome pic!)

There seems to be one thing in common about basketball fans in India (or NRI hoop fans) that I have either come across or those that have reached out to me: outside the circle of their own friends/school/teams, every fan thinks that they are a minority, and there is a beautiful thrill in coming across other desis that also adore the game.

This is especially true for NBA nerds in India - for the longest time, my older brother and I staunchly believed that we would never find more of our kind, those that shared our crazed enthusiasm for the league, those that checked box scores every day and threw statistics at each other, those that spent hours discussing and debating our ultimate starting fives (Greatest ever, Most defensive, Most notorious, Best without-a-championship, Best second-fiddles, etc, etc, etc, I could go on all day...)

But as I have delved deeper and deeper into my obsession, I have discovered that I'm far from alone. Basketball (and NBA) fans are a small but loud community in India, but one that is set to continue growing rapidly and continue making their voices heard.

So without further ado, here is my breakdown of The Indian Basketball Fan. Where do you stand?

1). Stalwarts of basketball in India: These are the ones who have represented our country in hoops, have played in tournaments and camps around the country, who have spent hours every day since their teenage years perfecting the game, listening to the barks of a ruthless (but affectionate) coach, and asking for the courts blessings every time they step on it. A large majority of these fans are so obsessed with the game that they are experts at the local knowledge of hoops but don't know much NBA or other world basketball information. To them, the real hoop legends are TJ Sahi, Sambhaji Kadam, Divya, Singh, Geethu Anna Jose, and Trideep Rai.

2. Basketball is religion, and there's the NBA, too: These fans are much like the ones above, as in, they are mostly players of the game. But they also follow the international game and the NBA - they have been waking up at 5:30-6:30 in the mornings two or three times a week for a decade (or more), have been watching the NBA players, trying to emulate them, but still holding the grassroots stars in greater regard. When asked, many of these fans would probably reply that their favourite NBA players are Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, or Shaq, Iverson, and Michael Jordan for the older school.

3. The NBA superstar fans: This category encompasses the legion of fans who play regular hoops at their school or their nearest playground and try to emulate their NBA player obsessions on court. These are the ones who may not have made the game their life and profession, but love it nonetheless, and are also huge fans of the NBA. Again, limited by what's shown on TV, these players love Garnett and the Celtics, Kobe and the Lakers, Dwight Howard and the Magic, or LeBron James and the Cavaliers... Okay... maybe not the Cavaliers any more! You're a fan number three if you supported the Cavs until last season but ever since his trade, you're a Miami Heat fan. You're a fan number three if you follow the player, not the team.

4. The NBA "all-player" fans: Above are the fans who only like the marquee players that are hyped up all the time: (LeBron, Kobe, Dwight, Wade, Garnett, etc), but this category is for the ones who are crazed about the underrated stars of the league. If you're more interested in David Lee's double-doubles, Stephen Curry's shooting percentage, or Shane Battier's defensive intensity, you belong in this category.

5. The NBA teams' fans: This category is usually filled with older NBA fans, or at least the more stubborn ones! These are the ones that will support a team rain or shine. Of course, it is difficult being loyal to an NBA city when we live thousands of miles away, but these fans try. A part of me belongs to this stubborn list too, as I've been a New York Knick fan for over a decade and seen only one year of relevance for my favourite squad! Despite the popularity of the Cleveland Cavaliers, it's hilariously obvious that the team didn't have any real fans - you just need a revisit to your nearest Adidas shop in India to see that all Cavalier merchandise has suddenly disappeared!

6. Fans of the game, and nothing much else!: These are the ones usually go on to become the coaches or the referees! These are the fans that just love basketball - who is playing, who they are representing, where they are playing doesn't matter. They love the game, the Xs and and Os, they love designing plays and reading them, they love to study the arc on the perfect jump-shot and the shoulder-to-knee posture of the perfect defensive stance!

As I write this, I have started to have a sneaking suspicion that many fans could relate to at least two or three of these categories. But wherever you find yourself as a fan, there will be one thing that will unite you all: passion. Despite the relative lack of exposure, popularity, and media hype to basketball, Indian fans have somehow remained loyal to the game.

So if you're not a hoops fan yet, join one or six of the crazed categories above, because I guarantee you will come out rewarded. I did!

Basketball’s Youth Brigade

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Students return to India from University of Delaware programme to support BFI

From the fireworks of the 4th of July celebrations to the bright lights of New York city, Divya Singh and Yuvika Sharma had enjoyed their share of the American experience. Strange then, is the one concept that Yuvika especially brought back home with her.

Soccer Moms.

A 'Soccer Mom' (see Palin, Sarah) in American culture, is a parent that takes special interest in accompanying their children to sporting events and other activities, particularly to soccer/football games. In America, where the real football (and not the American version) is still a relatively smaller sport, encouraging the parents’ interest in their child’s growth as a footballer has helped a gradual change of national psyche towards the sport, and in turn, helped raise the profile of football/soccer in the country.

In India, Yuvika would like to see Hoop Moms (and Dads, too). After returning with a two years degree from the University of Delaware (UD) in Masters of Education – Sports Management, Yuvika has dived straight into work with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in organising and managing basketball events here. One of her dreams is to invite the parents of younger basketball participants to camps, tryouts, or important games, so that parents can soak in the hoop environment and see their kid in action.

“Involving the parents of younger children is a big step,” says Yuvika, “The game of basketball has to be attractive to them – they have to understand that their child can have success and recognition at a national level.”

We live in the culture where the ‘average parent’ is not one to embrace the idea of their child as a professional athlete, particularly if more secure options and available, and particularly if the sport their child is interested in is something other than cricket. But with the potential of growth of basketball in India, times are definitely a-changing – hoops can be more than just a hobby, and the support of a parent from an early age will be a big step forward in assuring that the youngster is encouraged to keep improving their game.

But that is just one of the many ideas that Yuvika and Divya have returned with. UD had received a grant by the US Dept. of State to conduct the International Basketball Initiative (IBI) educational exchange programme with India. Part of this programme included a seminar held in conjunction with the BFI and the NBA, where the two girls were selected to be fully sponsored for their education at the campus in Newark.

Divya, who has formerly been the captain of the Indian Women’s Basketball team, was already a famous name in the country’s basketball circles before she took this opportunity, serving as assistant coach to the UD’s women’s team. Yuvika worked alongside Matthew J. Robinson, the assistant professor of sport management, on the development and implementation of grassroots development strategies for Indian basketball.

Yuvika, who concedes that the training at UD has made her approach a lot more business-minded and professional, has grand plans to bring ‘showbiz’ into the game of basketball in India. “It should be more than a sport, it should be entertainment,” she feels, “We must look into every opportunity to commercialise the games for the audiences here. I have concentrated on PR, marketing, and events promotion of the game. The aim is to sell basketball to the common Indian household, tell people that it’s an affordable game.

She hopes to create a spectator market for the sport, making sure the games and important events are held at suitable time of the day (the afternoon heat is a bigger factor that you think!), involve entertainment events like a dunk contest, and most importantly, give the players the recognition and promotion they deserve.

“Our national level players must become household names, at least in their own town,” she adds, “When people in Chennai talk about S. Robinson, they should know that he’s one of our most lethal shooters, our very own Ray Allen!”

It may sound like a cliché, but after all, the game is about the players, and both Yuvika and Divya understand that. The BFI has taken a few steps towards fulfilling their demands, hiring a physiotherapist for the international teams and adding a player information database on the website. And while Yuvika focused on the management side of things, Divya returned home after working on-court with the basketball players at the UD.

Divya understands that the same techniques and views broached in the US might not apply to the different culture and the “different way of doing things” back home in India. Still, she’s willing to give it a try – Divya got the opportunity to be a trainee under UD’s head coach of the women’s team, the legendary Tina Martin. Now, as she makes her return to India, the 28-year-old has already laid out her plans to coach and improve the tactics of young Indians. “I want to eventually start looking at coaching the young coaches here,” she says, “They must be introduced to new techniques, and there must be uniformity amongst the coaches in the teaching of the basics of basketball to the young players.”

“It was really an eye-opening experience,” Divya added, “We soaked in American culture, we learnt so much about the professional manner to approach things when managing sports, and in our case, basketball.”

Nothing less than a professional manner will do: ever since BFI signed a 30-year-deal with IMG-Reliance (IMGR), hoop-heads in the country have been buzzing with excitement. As per this deal, IMGR will be supporting basketball in India through camps, talent scouting (such as the IMG Academies Scholarship programme), and within a few years, the launch of a professional basketball league. There is no better time than now for basketball to be popularised in the “common Indian household”; no better time than now for our young players to have the best training available so that they can become the future stars of this venture.

Get ready, ‘Hoop Moms’: it’s time to pay some attention to basketball.

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Leading by example: Indian Women’s Basketball Captain Prashanti Singh

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The success of any organization depends on several different qualities of the individuals who comprise of it and on the outside influences working towards it, but invariably, its true character shows through its leader. A country’s achievements are represented largely by its President or Prime Minister, an army by its general, a multinational company by its CEO, and a sports team by its captain.

If you have been following the recent improvements of the Indian National Women’s Basketball team, you would’ve noticed something beyond just the successful results: you would notice a new-found confidence, youthful energy, an ambition to keep improving, and a savvy awareness amongst the athletes.

It is then perhaps no surprise that all these qualities are exhibited by the team’s leader: the young but experienced Prashanti Singh. Prashanti, 25, has been growing with the national team for around eight years, and now as captain, she oozes of infectious confidence and ambition that has spread amongst the other girls in the squad to help form a formidable young unit.

In a recent discussion, the star shooting guard told me how, despite the dearth of career development and professional opportunities for female basketball players in India, the girls have continued to improve their level for their love of the game. The team’s steady rise has showed on the biggest stage over the past five years – the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship. The girls finished 10th in 2005, 7th in 2007, and 6th at the championship held at Chennai in November 2009.

True, the results have been nothing to write home about, but at least the team is headed in the right direction. One of the highlights of Prashanti’s career was playing in the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam, where she captained her squad into the tournament’s final only to lose to Thailand by one point and settle for the silver medal.

The current team is the youngest team that Prashanti has played on, and she says that the change in attitude has been very encouraging. “When I first came in, the team only had a few youngsters – now, just like the men’s squad, the majority of the team is of younger girls, who with the help of a few experienced older players, have been given a chance to grow as a team together.”

“We’re performing much better than the boys are!” she boasts – the Indian Women’s team ranks 43rd in the World FIBA rankings, as opposed to the Men, who are 49th. But don’t just follow the rankings – there has been a change in attitude, commitment, and a new-school system of leadership and management that has combined to move the team in a positive direction.

Unfortunately, there are still hurdles for the women’s game in the country. “The system is biased against women,” says Prashanti, who is a Class-III employee working and playing for the MTNL in New Delhi. “The services are slower to help women improve in their careers as compared to the men. Even after my achievements my position at work hasn’t improved. There are only three national level women teams – Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Railways (combined), and Kerala Electricity Board. We have fewer options and less bargaining chips than the men do.”

Because of this, the current team has a lot more girls that are students than those who are in government service, and many of these youngsters are looking for private sponsorship. “We need more teams in India,” she adds, “College students are now more aware of their careers, why would they join a service for a job that isn’t ideal? We need a solution soon, because the good young players won’t settle for these jobs anymore.

“Despite all this, we’re still playing well; and its all for the love of the game. The good news is that we are moving away from the old system of favouritism for the older players – the new girls are looking to develop their game further holistically. Everything is becoming commercialized and they are very aware of how basketball is growing in India and around the world. They are learning things off the court too. Many of them are interested in moving on to leagues in other countries.”

The recent major breakthrough for Indian women in basketball was the success of Geethu Anna Jose. Geethu is India’s biggest basketball star and one of the best players in all of Asia. The talented Keralite played two fruitful seasons with the Ringwood Hawks, a Division II team in Australia in 2007 and 2008. Prashanti notes how Geethu’s game improved under better training and league experience abroad, and she is ready to make that jump, too.

“My aim is to play for a good league abroad,” says Prashanti, “Anywhere where I can hone and improve my skills.”

Talks of a domestic basketball league in India, akin to the NBA or the IPL, have been in the air in recent months, and Prashanti minces no words in sharing her opinions. “We will not improve much by playing in short sporadic tournaments [like the current system]. What we need is a domestic league so that we can get a season of regular games, regular basketball experience of basketball at a competitive level, and thus improve our game.”

Experience is one of the team’s biggest weaknesses: “We start each game with great energy, but begin to struggle whenever the opponents switch tactics to counter us. We need to play more so we can get experienced to deal with different systems and situations. With a league we will learn more about our own potential.”

Another recent weakness of the team was size – for a few years, the squad didn’t have depth beyond Geethu at the Center position. The problem in size also coexisted with over-reliance on the team’s experienced superstars. Prashanti believes that these problems are now improving – for example, the youngster Harjeet expertly filled in for Geethu’s absence for a few recent games. A lot more tall young players are being scouted for the national squad, too.

“We’re improving on several levels,” says Prashanti, “As captain, I have seen great team chemistry between the girls. The youngsters are also gaining confidence and the team doesn’t always have to depend on the seniors. Although we are still relatively small, we are good enough now so that our success doesn’t start and end with our shooters as it used to.”

Prashanti’s responsibilities as captain have also spilled off the court. She has had to be aware of the management and promotional side of the squad, and understands the importance of popularizing the sport of basketball amongst Indian fans. “It will take time for us to improve – we have to be patient,” says Prashanti, “We should play against some Asian countries with which we can compete, and then we can move on step by step to try and match the level of China or South Korea. Given time, we can have world-class players in India, too.”

“If you take the example of cricket: the game only started to gain widespread fame when we won the World Cup in 1983 – and now, 27 years later, with IPL we are at the top of the world. Cricket is a game played by a dozen countries and basketball by over 200 – I’m sure that Indian fans will soon grow fond of basketball, too.”

She added, “People in India are aware of sports a lot more than before – we just have to teach the game to them in whatever language that they understand.”

Prashanti, who is known by the nickname ‘Boskey’, began her love affair with basketball in her early teens. She made her debut with the senior team at the age of 18. She is from the acclaimed ‘Basketball family of Varanasi’, as she is one of four Singh sisters to have represented the Indian national team. Her older sister Divya Singh has also been India’s former captain and has carved her own space in the world of basketball. Divya has moved on to studying about basketball management in the US, leaving Prashanti to take the helm of this ever-improving squad. Younger sisters Akanksha and Pratima are also her teammates.

“I used to follow my sisters to the Varanasi courts, and once I started playing the game, I just couldn’t stop,” says Prashanti, “I was given a break early in a tournament, and ever since, basketball has been my life. I had to find a way to get on the court and play everyday. Our family discussions are always about basketball!”

The national team is blessed to have players with a background and love for the game like Prashanti. The girls will be heading to their next major challenge in the form of the 16th Asian Games (XVI ASIAD) that will be held in Guangzhou, China, from November 12-27, 2010.

With a leader like Prashanti, one thing is for sure: the team will be motivated to do their best at any level. Geethu, the team’s most talented player, has warm words for her captain: “She is a very dedicated player, a very hard worker, and a very supportive captain - her only target is to WIN WIN and WIN! She just can’t stand to lose.”

“I have had great luck in the game,” says Prashanti, “On whatever level I have played basketball, I have kept on winning, with or without anyone else’s support.”

It will be the confidence of this young team, and the confidence of its motivated captain, that will help lead the Indian girls to chart greater heights in the basketball world.

This article was first published as the cover story of the April (fifth) edition of the Sports Keeda e-magazine. Click here to download the magazine

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BFI: It wasn't me

Following basketball star Geethu Anna Jose's "ban" from being able to in a professional league in Australia (as reported on TimesNow.tv), I wrote an article on my blog protesting against Geethu's plight, called How to suppress your superstars - 101. This article was also published on SportsKeeda.com.

The TimesNow.tv article mentioned this: "... the Indian Olympic Association has denied permission since Geethu is also the captain of the Indian women's Basketball team. According to the explanation given by the IOA, the Basketball Federation of India is supposed to organise a National camp during the same time."



It didn't take long for a response to my article: the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) made a press release just three days later refuting the blame for denying Geethu from playing in Australia.

The release, posted by former women's national team captain Divya Singh reads something like this:

Basketball federation of India refutes the blame of denying their National player for playing in Australia.
One of the recently published articles stated that Geethu Anna Jose, an outstanding and highly reputed International Basketball Player of the country was denied the opportunity to train and play in the Big V Women’s program in Australia from 15th February to mid August, 2010 by the Ringwood Basketball Association, Victoria, Australia by the Basketball Federation of India.
BFI clarifies that Jose sent her E-mail to the Federation at 8:42 PM on 25th January, 2010. The 26th January, 2010 being a National Holiday the office was closed. Her permission to participate in the above program in Australia was given on 27th January, 2010 addressed to Head Women’s Coach Ringwood Basketball Association Inc, Australia by Email and a copy of the letter was also forwarded to Geethu by Email.

“We never deny any player, until unless it comes to our commitment towards the nation” says, Harish Sharma, Genl secy BFI.
In few months Geethu, a member of the Indian team, will be representing at the reputed Asian Games. Basketball Federation of India is planning the National Coaching Camp and Foreign Exposure for the Men & Women teams in order to prepare Indian teams for the Asian Games this year where it is mandatory for the selected players to participate in the Coaching Camps & Foreign Exposure prior to their respective International participation and the Asian Games.
In such cases, BFI always considers National interest, and it is expected of every player selected, to attend the National Coaching Camps for the preparation of International events. Basketball is a team game and the whole team needs to practice together for the work-outs on offensive as well as defensive strategies & team coordination.

I applaud the BFI if they really did give permission to Geethu to join the team in Australia. But if the BFI isn't stopping her, then why is she still here?

I wholeheartedly agree that national interest should stand above all, but it shouldn't come in the way of player progress if possible. Geethu had been quoted saying that her league season in Australia would end three months before the Asian Games, giving her ample time to practice with the team. In situations like these, doesn't she deserve to go and improve her skills abroad?

I was finally able to contact Geethu and get her side of the story.

This is what Geethu said about the issue: "... About the Australian league: What really happened was, finally [the BFI] gave me the permission to go, but also they said i have to be back for this Asian games camp going to be held at next month."

What she means is this: the BFI did allow Geethu to go, but expected her back much too early, and for her to return in a month would mean that she misses a large part of her professional season with the Ringwood Hawks in Australia.

Geethu was, after all, the top scorer in all of Asia (!!) during the FIBA Women's Asian Basketball Championships in Chennai in November. Pardon me for thinking that she deserves a lot more respect and recognition for her efforts.

These questions remain to be answered for the conflict to be fully resolved. But this is just a start of such conflicts - if we are hoping that Indian players improve their quality of play, then they will eventually be wooed by better basketball leagues in other countries - Australia, Europe, and hopefully in my lifetime, the NBA. Will this be a reoccuring situation every time our players want to head out of India?

Indian federations / associations need to learn from incidents such as those of Geethu and, of course, from the problems faced by our only Olympic individual gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, who was involved in a tussle with the NRAI.

Based on the opinion of most of the players and coaches I have spoken to, the BFI's General Secretary Harish Sharma seems to be determined in helping promote basketball in India the right way. He should be thanked for his swift response to this issue, but I feel that there is a long way to go before we have a smooth system of dealing with these complicated issues.

The Cricket Delusion: How Indian basketball can learn from the recent field hockey debacle

Let me start with my thesis: Sport in India is a joke.

I write this article as I watch my favourite ever sportsmen devastate the Bangladesh bowling attack with another spectacular performance. He has just completed his 45th Test century (half a dozen more than his nearest competitor), and would go on to make a breathtaking 143 runs.



It’s been 20 years since Sachin Tendulkar first gripped India’s emotions as a talented 16-year-old, and up to this day, he remains in the eye of the Indian public the one untouchable, uniting figure in the country. Globally, he’s ranked as one of the greatest to ever play the game. I don’t exaggerate when I say that there has been no more unanimously loved Indian since that Gandhi character.

Sport can’t be a problem in India when an athlete is the nation’s more powerful icon, can it? Sport can’t be a problem when the Indian Premier League (IPL), a competition of cricket’s newest format, the Twenty-20, is Asia’s first billion dollar sporting league , and one of the richest sporting leagues around the world? Of the top-10 most earning cricketers in the world, spots 1-4 and 6 are occupied by Indians. Number one is the captain of our national cricket team, MS Dhoni, and although his 2009 earnings of approximately 10 million USD are Lilliputian compared to the amount of money that superstar athletes make in other sports worldwide, these cricketers aren’t exactly fighting to feed their kids.

How can sport be a problem when India is ranked the number 1 Test Cricket team in the world? How can sport be a problem when our cricketers are as famous as our much-revered film stars? How can I call sport a joke in India, when millions keep their eyes glued to their TV sets, the housewives offering prayers to our pick of a hundred thousand gods for another victory, the fathers ditching work and the sons ditching school to sit home and watch another India international cricket match?

The problem, obviously, is the fact that all the glorious stories and figures in India belong to cricket, and if we do strike lucky and succeed in another sport, the successes are either quickly forgotten, or the newspapers find it tough to squeeze in the news amongst the barrage of daily cricket stories that the Indian audiences are overdosed with.

There are, of course, a few exceptions. Field Hockey, officially our ‘national sport’ has been headline material twice over the past few years. The first time was in August 2007, when Bollywood came to temporarily save the day (and earn a lot of money) as the blockbuster film Chak De India on the story of India’s women’s hockey team made the sport the flavour of the month.

The second time was a few weeks ago, when the members of the Indian hockey team boycotted a national camp in Pune, demanding their unpaid dues. The news wouldn’t have made as much noise as it did but for the fact that India is set to host the Hockey world cup in a month. There was suddenly the ridiculous danger of the home team fielding a B-squad for the greatest stage of their so-called national sport.



The stand-off between the players and the hockey federation stretched for several days, with everyone from state ministers and movie stars (After Chak De India, superstar actor Shahrukh Khan became the self-appointed ad-hoc spokesperson for Indian hockey) pitching in their opinion.There were debates on national TV, front page articles in the newspapers, and more editorials written about the sport nationwide than those accumulated in the last ten years. The Hockey Federation seemed to have the sponsor money with them, so when news broadcasters asked the federation’s bigwigs in a live telecast about where the money went, they got bumbling, anxious responses. The audiences were glued: we smelled corruption and couldn’t look away.

Cricket must have watched jealously for a week. Well, finally, a resolution was reached: the players got their money, and India began another cricket series. The media’s attention shifted away and order was restored in the universe.

Most of the sport fans in India didn’t even know that the hockey world cup was imminent, and what more, that it was being hosted by India. The general public only became interested when hockey went wrong, and we suddenly had the federation to throw our verbal rotten apples at, and Shahrukh and the media had us showering our sympathy on our poor professionals who never get what they deserve, and the facilities are appalling, and the money is bad, and now, it is the women’s hockey team turn to start asking for their money and so on and so forth.

The problem is that, with all the attention and finances thrown around by the broadcasters, promoters, media, and government authorities to make cricket the most lucrative business in India, there is little left room left to share with other sports in the country. It is perhaps no surprise then, that India, a country of a billion and a half people, has won a staggering ONE (1) individual gold in the history of the Olympic Games, and that too went to the shooter Abhinav Bindra at Beijing 2008, who was rich enough to self-finance his training, equipment, and success, free from the meddling hands of the government. The Olympics, obviously, don’t feature cricket, or India would have be raking in the medals and the positive vibes.

Team sports in India, such as football, basketball, and hockey, are forever stifled by age-old bureaucratic traditions, where a young talent finds it near improbable to climb up the ranks without politicking with the authorities on the side. Football has managed to thrive a little more than the others because of the century old tradition in the country and the marginally successful I-League. Even they have complaints: International superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi are far better known than the members of our own national team.

The hockey debacle has once again exposed India’s monomaniacal obsession with cricket. A cricket international would never be treated the way the hockey internationals were. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is obviously the country’s richest sporting body. Compared to it, other sports, and particularly basketball, is still miles behind. Basketball even lacks the ‘national sport’ sentiment that hockey is often credited (or burdened) with or the historical significance of football.

Ayaz Memon, one of India’s most respected sport’s journalist and a columnist for NBA.com/India, writes in his article ‘The Changing Face of Sports’ that, “…NBA can be of help to India: not necessarily because of the sport it represents, but more because of the way it has gone about conducting its business. I used the last word of the previous sentence deliberately, because in India, sport has hardly been seen as business, more as pastime: the government provides some grant, officials hang on to office for power rather than passion for the sport, and players fight heavy odds to eke out a living or at least some glory.”

The NBA business model relies a lot on individual marketing of players to deepen their fan base. Would a basketball star in India ever be marketed this way? Would another sport’s star ever be held in the kind of reverence that is showered on cricketers like Tendulkar or Dhoni? The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has been pondering bringing in a NBA-inspired league system to basketball here, and although it would generate a little more excitement and hope for the sport, it would only be a modest first step.

Compared to a few of the other sports, Basketball has a relatively cleaner reputation in terms of corruption or embezzlement in India, but I believe that the trend of seniority-based preferential treatment and unfair team selections would have to be cleaned out from the sport’s culture. When I spoke to India’s former women’s national captain Divya Singh, she said, “I don’t like cricket very much, but I admire the way that it is managed. It’s possible for basketball to grow in India. There is a court in most of the schools in India, and kids play the game regularly at a young age. Their talent needs to be channelized in the right way.”



The other good news is that, as time has passed, the attention level of your average viewer is diminishing by the day. Half a century ago, cricket started off as a five-day marathon, and in the 70s morphed into a day-long game. Now, the most recent form of the game (the Twenty-20) only lasts around three hours and has taken cricket hysteria to new heights. If projected as a shorter, faster, and more athletically appealing sport, basketball has the perfect opening to carve out a space for itself in the public's consciousness.

In recent years, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza, Viswanathan Anand, Bhaichung Bhutia, Saina Nehwal, Abhinav Bindra, Vijay Singh, and others have had relative successes in their respective sports, gaining a little bit of fame and commercial value. We are still a long way away before the successes of non-cricket athletes are taken by the majority of Indians seriously. The mainstream media’s regular interest in hockey’s darkest day shouldn’t be just some one-off fling with other sports in India. Like hockey, sports like basketball should be put under the scrutinizing media spotlight, making the structure behind the system accountable as well as help in promoting the game.

*First published on SLAMOnline.com on January 28, 2010.

Divya Singh: Good Girl Gone Basketball

A ‘good Indian girl’ isn’t supposed to be this way. A ‘good Indian girl’ is supposed to listen to her parents, stay publicly inhibited and grounded, and in these slowly changing times in modern India, is allowed to study diligently to achieve an attractive degree.



Because from Day One, a ‘good Indian girl’ is nurtured for eventual her matrimonial advertisement in the supplement copy of the Wednesday newspaper. She is taught how to cook the right Indian meals to keep her future husband happy, she is expected to build a home, churn out descendents (preferably boys) at regular intervals, and sacrifice her own ambitions to satisfy the expectations of both her and her husband’s family.

It is because a woman in India rarely exists for herself: she lives for her parents, and her siblings, and her prying aunties, and her husband, and her children, and so on and on… That’s why the story of a female athlete in India, or a female architect, a writer, a filmmaker, or anyone from a male-centric traditional background, who instead decided to live her life the way she wanted to, will never be an ordinary story.

Divya Singh, the former captain of the Indian women’s national basketball team, is one such story. At 27, Divya has already turned the stifling ‘good Indian girl’ stereotypes on its head, and instead trailblazed a career for herself in what she loved most: basketball.

Like former men’s captain Trideep Rai, who I interviewed for an article last month, Divya is also from my hometown Varanasi, which has had a reputation of being uniquely illustrious in churning out national-level basketball talents. Her early inspiration to get into the game as an adolescent was her older sister Priyanka, who received notable basketball success herself when she got a chance to play for her state team. “I used to watch my sister play, and hang around her, just dribbling,” Divya says, “That is how it all began.”

In two years, Divya’s casual dribbling drills morphed into serious interest in the game, and at 14, she got her first call-up to the Varanasi District Junior Team. Two years later, she was called up to play for the seniors. She was in her senior year at high school when she got her call-up to represent her state Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the senior nationals.



Although naturally gifted, her journey in basketball wasn’t without its share of hurdles. First and foremost, it was from her own father, a bank manager who was against his daughter’s interest in athletics. “He still feels like I should’ve tried to find a job in something related to administration,” Divya said, “He didn’t understand that I could have a future in sports.” Her mother, Divya admits, fully supported her dreams, and despite the differing worldviews in her family, Divya continued to develop her game towards stardom.

Divya received her first call-up to the Indian national team in 2000. For seven years thereafter, the young Banarasi was a force in women’s basketball in the country. The highlights of her international career included a silver medal in the 20th Asian Basketball Confederation Championship in 2005, gold in the First Phuket International Invitational Basketball Championship in Thailand in 2006, leading the Indian team as captain in the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne (Australia), and finishing at 5th place (India’s highest finish in decades) at the FIBA Asia Championship for Women at Incheon (South Korea) in 2007.

Meanwhile, she continued a stellar career domestically too. After representing UP for a few years, she moved on to play for Delhi from 2002-2007, with whom she won gold in the Senior National Basketball Championships at Hyderabad in 2003 and three silver medals from 2005-2007. While she played for Delhi, she “worked” for the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) as a Telecom Office Assistant. I emphasize on “worked” because, as I had written in my article on Trideep, a lot of successful Indian basketball professionals are signed on to represent a government service with a mock job placement and title, whereas in reality they are expected to focus mostly on basketball. Divya agrees that her placement has been no different.

Divya’s success led the way to her three younger sisters following her path. Prashanti, Akanksha, and Pratima Singh have all represented the Indian national team, making Varanasi Singh family a unique foursome that began to dominate women’s basketball in India. It was to help her sister’s that Divya indulged in her first stint in coaching. She has been coach of St. Stephen’s College (Delhi) and Jesus and Mary College (JMC) Delhi, as well as Manager-Coach for Delhi University.

“My sister used to play in these teams,” she said, “I coached a few tournaments whenever I had the free time to try and help them out.” This early exposure for the youngster was to shape her interest in basketball coaching in the future.



After years of success in her career, she had reached a standstill: Divya stopped and asked herself, “Now what?” 27 is a mighty young age to be having a crisis of purpose; but as Trideep (26) had mentioned earlier, after a certain point, basketball in India leaves their players disillusioned with nothing to offer any more. “I played for the national team and had success in the national tournaments,” Divya says, “But players like us soon realize that there is nowhere else to go from here.” Divya was offered contract with a club in Chile, but the deal broke early, and she didn’t wish to pursue it any further.

It was later in 2007 that another unique opportunity came knocking Divya’s way: from one of the seminars conducted from the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders (BWB) programme, Divya and fellow player Yuvika Sharma were selected by the University of Delaware’s Sports Management Department for its Higher Education Administration Graduate Programme. The programme is a collaboration between the University of Delaware and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), and Divya, who is getting a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Sports Management there, will return to help the BFI at the end of her course in mid-2010.

“I’m learning stuff like international sports marketing and sports finance here,” she says, “I have plans to come back to India and work for the BFI, helping to promote basketball in India through the right kind of marketing and campaigning.” Aside from her degree, Divya also serves as the assistant coach to the head coach Tina Martin for the University’s senior team, which is in the D1 and is having a good season.

Unfortunately for Divya, she can’t actually play for Martin’s squad, because D1 rules imply that no player who has been paid as a professional can represent a D1 squad. It is not all disappointment for her, since working under the tutelage of Martin has helped Divya hone her own basketball knowledge, which she later wants to share with youth back in India.

“The level of players here is extremely high compared to back home,” Divya adds, “Players are physically tougher, and a lot more skillful. They train in a systematic manner, and have excellent facilities which are at least six or seven times than the facilities that we have back in our camps in India.”



Divya’s playing career seems to have been halted abruptly, a fact that she is resentful about, but realizes that with her knowledge now she could go back and help many more youngsters in India develop their basketball talent. “I didn’t want to leave sports. I love playing the game, but now I feel the right thing to do is to go back and help BFI in making basketball bigger in India.”

One of her dream projects is to be part of the system that ushers in a basketball league in India, similar to the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) for cricket. “In India, sport fans generally focus more on international games than domestic leagues – we need to help and chance that attitude,” she says, “The IPL has been very successful and we need to do something like that for basketball. Such a league will increase the competition level, provide regular games and exposure for players, and will be attractive to the fans.”

“Fans wake up at 4 in the morning to watch NBA games, and nobody knows about our own national championships.”

The league system, unlike the current service-tournament system in India, may not provide lifetime job security, but Divya believes that for the overall growth of the games as well as talent in India, it is better.

“I don’t like cricket very much,” Divya admits, “But I admire the way that it is managed. It’s possible for basketball to grow in India. There is a court in most of the schools in India, and kids play the game regularly at a young age. Their talent needs to be channelized in the right way.”

Her exposure in Delaware has shown Divya what facilities are lacking back home, like proper weight rooms, weight-trainers, dieticians, or scouts to cultivate young talent the right way. “Some of our players have had the natural talent and would’ve been able to make it into American leagues if they were nurtured properly from a young age.”

And it is with these dreams that Divya plans to return to India. “I am undecided on whether I will return to a playing career,” she says, “But I love the game, and I’ve found my calling with administrative work for the BFI in helping promote it the right way, whether through the media or through more camps across Indian schools.”

I don’t know if Divya’s step into administrative duties for the country’s basketball body was a planned career move, but they mark a strange compromise between her own dreams and her father’s. “When my sisters and I began playing the game, it was a passion, not a career,” she says, “We went against our father’s wishes and followed our hearts. That kind of passion needs to be brought back into youngsters playing basketball here.”

For Divya, it was always more than a career… Until it became one! Her story is exemplary to other young girls with dreams that conflict with their family, society, or the potential matrimonial ad. And it is girls like her who follow their dreams and positively redefine the 'good Indian girl'.