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In their own separate ways, the Indian national men’s and women’s basketball teams are working tirelessly in anticipation of a challenging second half of 2014, with the Asian Games scheduled in September-October in Incheon, South Korea. While the preparation styles may be different, the goal is the same: to be crowned the best in Asia.
Grunts, laughter, Hindi expletives, the squeaking of shoes and the irregular sounds of bouncing basketballs resonate inside the Jaypee Greens Indoor Sports Complex in Greater Noida, approximately 30 km away from national capital New Delhi.
Practice means perfection
Inside the complex, on one of the three full length basketball courts, 5ft 10 inch national point guard Joginder Singh Saharan is at the three point arc, waiting to receive a pass from India teammate Ranbir Singh Virdi. Saharan’s eyes are narrowed towards the hoop, concentrating on the dead centre of the rim. A basketball rests snugly in the palm of his right hand, the one he uses for shooting. His right wrist is fully flexed, forming little wrinkles at the back. His knees and ankles bend as he readies to shoot.
In a flash, he releases the ball which swishes through the air, backspinning perfectly into the 10 foot high hoop. The point guard repeats the same motion 17 times in a row, missing only once from a distance of more than 22 feet from the basket. Converting 16 out of 17 three pointers is laudable in itself, but Saharan isn’t satisfied. He walks back resolutely to his original position on one corner of the basket and starts again.
On the other end of the court, a 6ft 5 inch bearded Punjabi, Yadwinder Singh, sporting six pack abs and veins bulging on his muscular forearms, glares at his veteran teammate Prakash Mishra. Mishra has just missed an open layup from under the basket.
Undoubtedly, for the Indian national basketball team, practice means achieving perfection.
Coming together for a common goal
On the two adjacent courts, similar scenes are being played out by other senior players brought to the national capital region (NCR) from all over India – Akilan P, Pratham Singh, Amjyot Singh, Prasanna Venkatesh and Riken Pethani from Indian Overseas Bank Chennai, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Amrit Pal Singh from ONGC Dehradun, Vinay Kaushik from Delhi and Narender Grewal from the Indian Air Force. Keeping a keen eye on these players are American Head Coach Scott Flemming and Assistant Coaches GRL Prasad and KR Rao.
An hour and a half later, at around 11:00 am, a 19-year-old tomboyish girl sporting short hair walks into the court complex. Maharashtra’s Shireen Limaye slowly laces up her boots and watches her male counterparts complete their final round of morning shooting drills. Soon enough, Coach Flemming blows the whistle that sits around his neck and in a booming voice calls his players to the centre of one of the courts.
A huddle ensues – 12 strapping young guys and their coaches stand shoulder to shoulder with heads bent and right hands raised in the air, meeting at a single point above them. Coach Flemming mutters a few words and seconds later a collective chant of “TEAM INDIA” is heard. The Indian men’s team clears from the courts.
By now, Shireen isn’t the only girl waiting in the wings. She is joined by fellow senior India probables Akanksha Singh and Raspreet Sidhu from Delhi, Kerala’s Stephy Nixon, Neenumol, Poojamol and Jeena PS, Railways’ Rajapriyadarshini, Appoorva Muralinath and Uttar Pradesh’s Preeti Kumari, among others. Spanish Head Coach Francisco Garcia, wearing a bright yellow t-shirt and black shorts, motions his players to complete their warm ups. Assistant Coach Divya Singh lines up the players along the sideline and directs them through a series of dynamic stretching exercises. Akanksha Singh in particular, who has been rattled by a series of earlier injuries, adds her own extra sets of lower body stretches to be on the safe side.
How the women train
The women’s training methods are at odds with the men’s, with Coach Garcia preferring to run his players through a series of full court five-on-five motion drills – players weaving in and around each other, setting screens and shouting out plays. The five-on-five sessions are broken up sporadically as the Spanish Coach flares up without warning – his entire body seething in rage at a mistimed pass or a meaningless cut. He expresses his frustration by kicking a basketball high up into the rafters, revealing the footballing pedigree that comes with his Hispanic roots.
The Indian women’s team is ranked 40th in the world, while the men are 61st. Both these sides are routinely the best in the South Asian region (that includes India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan), but struggle against the rest of Asia, particularly against powerhouses like Iran, China, Philippines, Japan and South Korea.
The Indian women’s team is currently on a roll after last year’s FIBA Asia Basketball Championship, when for the first time in history, it finished as the fifth best team in Asia. Earlier this year, a young India team featuring mostly under-21 girls, secured a bronze in the Lusofonia International Games in Goa.
What the coaches have to say
Coach Garcia is realistic about his team’s chances in the upcoming tournaments. “Without professional basketball leagues at all levels, at the under-16, under-18 and seniors, where India’s best players can play competitive matches every weekend, it will be very difficult for us to compete with the top four Asian teams of China, South Korea, Japan and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). But we will try our best,” he tells us in English laced with a thick Spanish accent.
Earlier in the day, we had also caught up with men’s Head Coach Scott Flemming. “Our fitness and conditioning is not yet at the level we expect. So most of our drills involve cross court running of some kind in order to build our stamina. But thankfully, this year, we are at a much higher level compared to the same time last year. There are many returnees from 2013 in our current line up. So most players are familiar with my defensive and offensive systems and there’s great team chemistry, which is something we are banking on looking at the tough competition ahead.”
The Indian National men’s team has just left for the FIBA Asia Cup, which will be held in Wuhan, China from 11th to 17th July 2014. The gruelling climb to the top has already begun.
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