India's task looks a little difficult

IT IS four years since the Indian team took part in the Asian men's basketball championship. In international sport, this is a long gap to retain even the 13th or 14th position.

The present BFI administrators in general, and the new Secretary, Mr. Harish Sharma, in particular, want to bring the game to its past glory. But it will not be easy. The BFI has been out of touch in every aspect for too long because of its indifferent administration. For a decade, starting from 1985, basketball in India seemed non-existent to the Central Government, thanks to BFI's administrative apathy, improper planning, poor coaching and preparation. Even the major domestic events were conducted in a haphazard manner, postponing or scrapping them frequently without any rhyme or reason.

No other sport in the country has been reduced to such a pathetic condition. The BFI was isolated so badly that the federation was forced to the level of collecting money from players to send them for competitions. How can a game survive when talented players are prompted to bow out of the national squad because they cannot afford to pay for their participation? This obnoxious system went on for about 15 years. There was none to save the game from the non-performing officials.

There is plenty of untapped talent in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. But the BFI has hardly done anything to bring these units to the main stream. Even the scene in Rajasthan, which has `gifted' outstanding players like Khataria, Radhey Shyam, Ram Kumar and Ashok Kumar to the country, is grim now as the State's standard is going down. Only Punjab is just hanging on. Now Indian basketball is virtually reduced to south Indian show.

The BFI's top priority should be to have at least 12 to 15 States as feeder ones. For that, the States must go for good administrators who can enlarge the talent base and bring in competent people as coaches and referees! The Federation's duty is not just assembling players for the Asian championships every two years. It has to conduct clinics to improve the standard of coaches and referees. In the 70s, India had about 25 international referees with FIBA badge. Today, the number is pathetically low at two or three. They are also not active. Similarly, the BFI has to bring in more players who have played in international competitions as coaches. From among them it should form a panel.

Even when Capt. Rajan was the National coach there was criticism against him as he did not play the game at higher level. Hence he should not be considered for the post. In fact, he achieved better results. Still he had to face criticism. But during that period the Services dominated, and most of the national players were from that unit. So Rajan could manage things. Now it is different as States like Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Bihar are dominating. So the National coach must have the stature and competence to produce results.

The Indian men's team for the Asian championship at Shanghai is trained by Keshav Kumar Chansoria. His task is pretty difficult for various reasons. First, the national squad has not been exposed to foreign competition in the run up to the major event. Mere coaching camps cannot help the side. In fact, this is the curse of Indian sport. The national teams go for Asian competitions without any background material about the participating teams. Secondly, the new rules may cause confusion. The 24-second, eight-second and four quarter changes have not been mastered yet. ``This is where the coach's role is important. He has to keep complete control over things. The four quarter system is good in one way as the teams can come back. But what the team is going to do in the final quarter is important,'' said Jayashankar Menon, an Asian Allstar player.

``Our problem is that our team starts well in Asian championships. But the quality declines after the second match. Since we have to play seven or eight matches non-stop it needs tremendous energy and sustained performance. This is where we fail, '' said the former Tamil Nadu pivot.

``There is a perceptible change in the Asian structure in the last two or three years, including the performing level of teams from the Middle East. There is a strong pro league in the Middle East. So Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan have improved their game enormously,'' said Jayashankar, who, however, is not pessimistic about the Indian team. ``This Indian team has tremendous height advantage. It must utilise it fully. We may not be able to come in the first eight. But we can certainly improve our position if the boys combine well,'' he said.

Robinson's injury is a setback to the team as it is without good and strong pivot to replace him. The Tamil Nadu player and an Asian Allstar player has injured his arm during a tournament in Chennai. Still, the team has to put its heart in to get better position at Shanghai. India finished 13th at Riyadh in the 1997 Asian championship. Will it better that position this time?

M. C. RAMAN

Chennai

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