India's Amrit Pal Singh and Amjyot Singh picked to play in Japan's National Basketball League

Amjyot Singh during one of the matches

In some encouraging news for Indian basketball, India’s Amrit Pal Singh and Amjyot Singh have been chosen to represent the Hyogo Impulse in Japan’s National Basketball League(NBL). Both players headed for Japan on Sunday.

The two players- both aged 23- have signed up with the team till the 31st of August. This move could benefit the duo, if India are cleared to play in the FIBA Asian Championships, which begin the following month, on the 23rd of September.

The duo from Punjab played a key role in India’s triumph over China at the FIBA Asia Cup that was played in Wuhan, China last year and will look to play a similar role for their new team when they take to the courts in Japan.

If the duo do manage to impress the locals in Japan, there could also be a possibility of them attaining berths to even feature for the team on their regular season rosters and hopefully become full-time professionals in Japan.

Although no male player, so far has played in any of the established professional leagues overseas, there have been a few women’s players like Geeta Annu Jose and Anitha Paul Durai who have had fruitful stints in Thailand and Australia.

Amrit Pal and Amjyot Singh are also the players who were also involved in the controversy, surrounding FIBA’s “No Headgear” policy at the FIBA Asia Cup last year when they were asked to remove their turbans before participating in any FIBA organised basketball matches.