The Sad Story of Basketball in India

A general view of play during the Beach Basketball Women

Basketball is a game which is well known at the international level (NBA is one of the most expensive leagues in the world) and is a part of Olympics games.

We can definitely see that this game is becoming more and more popular in the European countries, to the extent that countries like Spain now hope of contesting the United States for the Gold medal in Olympics.

Many Asian countries have also taken a big leap in the game at their homes. Take for example China, who are now attracting old NBA stars like Jerry Stackhouse and Tracy McGrady to their leagues. Of course, China had a star like Yao Ming who gave them a huge boost and helped in making Basketball popular there, but still we just can’t pin the rise of Basketball in China on a single player.

Ok, let’s come to a conclusion that China are superior to us in pretty much everything.

Let’s take a look at Vietnam – Vietnam attracted Kobe Bryant last year, and they don’t even have the money or crowd like India. India, which is pretty much superior to Vietnam, can’t even bring an active NBA star to our country. That just shows we don’t have the heart and willingness to support Basketball like we have for Cricket.

Let’s look at Iran. Even they have Hamed Haddadi, who plays for Memphis Grizzlies and they also have a pretty good basketball league. On the other hand we have India, where hosting a Basketball League can’t even be foreseen for another decade or two.

The saddest Story of Basketball in India? In 2010, India hosted the Commonwealth Games and the host country, like always, has the power to cancel one sport in the Games and they decided to cancel Basketball. True they had a -100 odd point difference in 2006 but that’s doesn’t mean they should cancel the sport at the Games.

This is not a satire article – It’s an article of hope that maybe it will reach somebody powerful enough that can impact the basketball conditions in India directly – maybe they will start to take Basketball seriously, they will start to compensate Basketball players properly and respectfully and draw interest of young players in India – and maybe, and I know it’s difficult, but start a domestic basketball league.

After all, we can find few good Yao Ming’s or Haddadi’s in a population of billion-odd.