Shiv Kumar: An untimely end

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The world of basketball in India woke up in shock a few days ago at the news of the untimely death of young national team forward, Shiv Kumar. Born in 1985, Kumar was barely 25 years old before his unfortunate passing away. Known for his resilience and good-nature, both as a player and a person, Kumar will be mourned dearly by all his loved ones and the followers of Indian basketball.

“Shiv was a very good player, but more importantly, a good person,” said JN Nehra, Sports Authority of India (SAI) coach at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi. Nehra had been associated with Kumar for nearly a decade, ever since Kumar was a budding youth and junior team star in Delhi.

Kumar was a model of resilience over his career. He was first picked for the Men’s National Team in 2006, and despite a few setbacks, always came back stronger. After suffering a serious knee injury in 2007, which led him to surgery, Kumar made a successful return to basketball through training, physiotherapy, and diet, to perform well again and qualify for the national team. “Shiv will always be remembered for his strong will power,” adds Nehra, “He was a good-natured boy, and all coaches that ever worked with him will be full of praise for his sincerity and hard work.”

Hailing from the Kiloi village in Rohtak, Haryana, Kumar played his junior years of basketball in New Delhi before transferring to ONGC in Dehradun. ONGC point guard Mohit Bhandari, who was a teammate of Kumar and also worked with him as assistant coach of the National Team in 2009, laments the loss of a great talent for the ‘Young Cagers’. “We still haven’t come to the realisation that we have lost Shiv,” said Bhandari, “He was a helpful and friendly person, and his loss will be suffered by our national team, too, because he was a regular selection, and was a strong and powerful forward.”

Kumar was seen playing a major role in recent tournaments, including the Mastan League at Mumbai in May and the Jeppier Tournament at Chennai in July.

Kumar’s career highlights have included participation in the 17th FIBA Asia Champions Cup in Kuwait (June 2006), the 10th Crown Prince International Tournament in Thailand (June 2006), Qualifying Round of MAZ at Kazakhstan (July 2006), 19th FIBA Asia Championship at China (September 2006), 18th FIBA Asia Basketball Champions Cup at Iran (May 2007), Qualifying Round for MAZ for 24th FIBA Asia Championship at Sri Lanka (June 2007), and the 24th FIBA Asia Championship at Japan (July 2007).

"Shiv was an established star in Indian basketball," said BFI secretary-general Harish Sharma, "On behalf of the Basketball Federation of India, I would like to convey my deepest condolences to Shiv’s family, friends, teammates, and fans for this loss."

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India to have a professional basketball league

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BREAKING NEWS!!! It's official - the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has teamed up with the IMG Reliance venture to develop basketball in the country, and most importantly, develop a professional basketball league in India similar to the American NBA or the Chinese CBL.

I have been giddy with joy ever since I read this news! Three months ago, Reliance Industries, led by India's wealthiest Mukesh Ambani partnered with US-based sports marketing company IMG Worldwide in a joint venture to build sports facilities in India. The sports model that they set out to create was meant to "be similar to the one followed in mature sports and entertainment markets such as the US". IMG Worldwide is a sports management company and talent agency, who have been involved with sports promotion in the US for several years.

The agreement between BFI and IMG Reliance has been signed for 30 years.

From SportzPower:

The initiative is poised to significantly impact the competitive level of the sport and enhance the pool of talent in the country. The deal will see IMG Reliance assisting BFI on financial, promotional and technical aspects. As part of the agreement, the BFI has granted IMG Reliance commercial rights relating to basketball in India, including sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film, video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new league rights. The highlight of the agreement is expected to be the development of a professional basketball league in India in which players from around the globe will compete alongside Indian players, similar to the CBL in China. A critical element of the new initiative will be the development of world class infrastructure in India to support the effort, including the construction of new arenas and training facilities.
In line with its focus on developing the game at the grassroots level, IMG Reliance will advise the BFI regarding the organization and management of school and college leagues throughout the country. This will create a platform to develop and augment the talent pool of young men and women, enhance their opportunities to compete internationally, and successfully represent India on the world stage.
Talking about the deal, BFI secretary general Harish Sharma said, “We cannot mention the finances of the deal but IMG reliance would be supporting all the programmes BFI would be conducting across the country.”

“IMG Reliance would be commercially supporting our school/college leagues, championships etc. They will also be helping in gradation of the players where in the top players will get financial support to play the game. International expertise will be brought in to India to promote the game. As a long term plan, they also plan to promote a professional league in future,” he added.
“This is a step to promote and popularise the game in India. IMG is a global company and will surely help us in making the sport the second most popular sport in a few years,” he added.
"We are working towards kicking off the leagues at the onset of the sporting calendar in the country," Sharma further added.

Commenting on the development, Andrew Wildblood, IMG Reliance said, "The game of basketball is one of the most popular spectator sports across the world. With the active support and participation from the Basketball Federation of India, we will work to take the sport to the next level. IMG Reliance will leverage IMG's unparalleled experience of developing sporting leagues and talent development to make basketball in India a commercially exciting sporting proposition with a large fan base.

IMG Reliance also plans to establish sporting academies in India, modeled on the world renowned IMG Academies at Bradenton, Florida, to provide athlete and coach training in the country.

The BFI's partnership with IMG Reliance will not be interfering with the grass-roots efforts of growing the game in the country, particularly that of Mahindra's partnership with the NBA for the Mahindra-NBA Challenge. I think it's great that we have two big companies competing in the basketball realm in the country: more competition = more money, and more money will be directly proportional to the rise of basketball in India.

Basketball is already one of the fastest growing sports in India - and as the interest grows, we now have to make sure that our coaches and management provide the right guidance to the future generation of ballers to make sure that there talent responds to the financial growth in the game.

The best way for things to improve is if several efforts continue to work parallel to each other, and I can see many things happening around the country now. The Mastan League in Mumbai made headlines for first introducing a short professional-type league in the city. The NBA has been increasing its interest in India over the past few years, promoting the game (and itself) via the Mahindra League, infrastructural growth, player development, commercial development, and others. American coaches like JD Walsh, Bob Baker, and Craig Esherick have been to the country to train coaches and players, and Walsh continues to train Indian coaches in achieving a high level of basketball knowledge.

And now, with IMG Reliance taking a positive step into the frame, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Indian basketball fans. Time to get the next generation of hoopsters ready, because before we know it, we're going to have full-time basketball professionals in India!

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Prince and Super Girls win inaugural Mastan League

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Team Prince and Super Girls won the inaugural Mastan League championship in the Men's and Women's division respectively at the Mastan YMCA in Mumbai. Led by superstar Geethu Anna Jose, Super Girls beat Wonder Girls in the final 80-59. The Men's final was a closer affair, with Prince defeating Soldiers 78-70.

The Mastan League success can potentially be a great boost for the future of basketball in India. Held from May 8-15th, the league was organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and is India's first ever fully professional basketball league. 80 of the top men and 40 of the top women players in India were divided into 12 teams (eight for men, four for women) that played against each other in the league. The players received a fixed match fee, and the total prize money was of 14 lakhs.

The finalists benefited from the sponsors, who decided at the last moment to double the total prize money for the winning team to Rs 1 lakh, and for the runner-up team to Rs 75,000.

Geethu Anna Jose scored 35 points in the final, going against her international compatriots Harjeet Kaur and P. Anitha in the opposing squad. Prince, with stars such as Gangandeep Singh and Mohit Bhandari were able to overcome Soldiers in the men's final.

In the semis, Super Girls had defeated Power Girls 70-60 and Prince had defeated Riders 77-60. Soldiers entered the final by defeating Warriors in a high-scoring match-up, 97-85.

Dinesh CV of Soldiers and Akanksha Singh of Power Girls won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards for the league.

The small Mastan league could be a significant step in the direction of making a NBA/IPL style professional league in India as it helped to provide the players a league-like environment for the week. Many other of the countries top male and female players such as Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Sambhaji Kadam, S. Robinson, Mihir Pandey, Talwinderjit Singh “TJ” Sahi, Trideep Rai, Riyazuddin, Prashanti Singh, and others took part. League organisers also did a good job of dividing the teams as equally as possible, balancing the number of junior players and experienced faces on each squad.

"This is a very good idea to promote basketball in India," said Dishant Shah, a junior player who got the opportunity to play for Team Lions in the tournament, "The tournament has gone well and everyone has got a chance to showcase their skills.

A slam dunk competition and a three-point competition were also held on Friday, May 14th.

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Mastan League: India's first professional basketball league

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One small tip-off at Mumbai; a great jump for Indian basketball? India's first fully-professional basketball league will start in Mumbai tommorow with the Mastan League, launched by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). 80 of the men and 40 of the top women players in India have been divided into 12 teams (eight for men, four for women) that will play against each other in the league. The players are set to receive a fixed match fee. The games will be held from 8-15th May, and the total prize money is of 14 lakhs.

When I had spoken to BFI secretary-general Harish Sharma a month ago, he had boldly predicted that we could have an all-India pro-league in 2-3 years. The small Mastan league could be a significant step in that direction, helping to provide the players a league-like environment for the week. Some of the country's top male and female players such as Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Sambhaji Kadam, S. Robinson, Geethu Anna Jose, Mihir Pandey, Talwinderjit Singh “TJ” Sahi, Trideep Rai, Riyazuddin, Akanksha Singh, Prashanti Singh, Harjeet Kaur, and others will be taking part.

Harish Sharma, spoke to reporters yesterday (from zeenews.com):

"This is not the NBA, but in our own way we are starting a league for the betterment of basketball. We want the best players from the country playing for balanced teams, but they are not associated with any commercial groups," Sharma said.
"We have invited most international players for the tournament, including the junior national women campers at Indore who would be playing as one team. The junior men would be distributed among various teams. The matches would be watched by the national coaches and government observer," the BFI official said.

There will also be a best player award.

The teams are -

Men: Rangers, Challengers, Kings, Soldiers, Warriors, Lions, Riders, Prince
Women: Power Girls, Super Girls, Wonder Girls, Golden Girls

The players had to report to the venue on the 5th of May, and teams were formed after two days of tryouts. Sharma had said that the plan was to mix the teams up by talent to match a national league system. Around 40 percent of all the players are from Maharashtra to promote basketball in the host state.

DNA India reports that: "The team to watch out for in the women’s draw will be the Golden Girls team that will comprise members of India’s junior national squad. The event is helping them to gain exposure before they head for a championship in Thailand next month."

Ibrahim Lakdawala, an enterprising former national-level player has been behind the planning of this first of its kind professional basketball league in a hope to change the face of the game in the city.

These are definitely exciting times for basketball here. Almost all of the Indian star players I've spoken to have expressed the desire of seeing an IPL/NBA style basketball league in India. What we need next is to have more cities and states participate in such league, and not have a state-based quota for players such as the 40 percent used here.

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Andheri Invitational Tournament kicks off in Mumbai

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It seems like Mumbaikars can't get enough of their hoops, can they? Within a space of a few months, the Mumbai courts have already hosted the Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament and the Mahindra-NBA Challenge and next month, the Mastan Basketball League is set to be launched, too.
And here's another "basketball carnival" attracting Mumbai hoop-heads: The Andheri Invitational Tournament tipped off on Tuesday April 20th at the Andheri YMCA court. Organized by Andheri YMCA and co-sponsored by ABEC India, the tournament will conclude on May 2nd.

The competition will be held for the following sub-groups:
- Under 13 (Boys & Girls)
- Under 18 (Boys)
- Women (Non Professional)
- Men (Open)

Teams have been considered for invitation following their performance in the Bandra/Ghatkopar tournaments. A total of Rs. 1 lakh prize money is on offer.
One of the highlights of the tournament will be the 'Master's Match', held on the 1st of May: it will be a special exhibition game featuring former International and National players as well as basketball loving celebrities.

Keep ballin', Mumbai!

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BFI to launch the Mastan Basketball League in Mumbai

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More More More BASKETBALL! Nearly a week ago, the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) announced the Mastan Basketball Professional League for Men & Women to be held at Mastan Y.M.C.A in Mumbai from 5th to 15th May, 2010.

The Mastan league is yet another positive step taken by the BFI to introduce what I call a "league-like" experience to some of the countries top players. Following the news of the Mahindra-NBA recreational league which will target amateur/casual basketball players, the Mastan league will offer a similar structure to the top-level basketball players in the country.
Ibrahim Lakdawala, an enterprising former national-level player has been behind the planning of this first of its kind professional basketball league in a hope to change the face of the game in the city.

From BFI News:

Top 48 players from all over India and 32 players from Maharashtra State will be selected to play in the Men section forming 8 Teams from these 80 players.
While top 25 players from all over India and 15 players from the state of Maharashtra will be selected to play in the women section forming 4 teams from these 40 players.
CASH AWARDS TO EACH PLAYER will be provided during each match of the League as per details mentioned below: -
Winner – Rs. 3,000/- (per player)
Runner-up – Rs. 2,000/- (per player)
Semi Final Matches: Winner: 4,000/- (per player)
Runner-up Rs. 3,000/- (per player)
Final’s Winner: 5,000/- (per player)
Runner-up: 4,000/- (per player)
Each match will have a best player award.

As mentioned above, the league will feature nearly 30 percent players from the state of Maharashtra and the remaining will comprise of the best from the rest of India. I spoke to BFI secretary Harish Sharma about the league today, and he said the purpose of this league will be to introduce a new concept and new teams to the players.
"We want to mix the teams up, like it would be if we had a national league system," said Harish, "They will be given cash rewards for their appearances and performances. We will hold tryouts to choose the final teams and also recruit coaches for this. It will be one more step towards a professional league in India."
Many of the country's best players have been invited for this league, and beyond them, other good basketball players will also be given a chance. Check out the BFI website news for contact details if you wish to participate.
The players will have to report to the venue on the 5th of May and the teams will be formed on the 6th and 7th. The matches will kick off on the 8th and end on the 15th of May.

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