Basketball has been knocked out of the list of disciplines for the 2010 Games and the disappointment is evident among the players.
There’s just a little over a year for the Commonwealth Games to begin in New Delhi, but if you ask cagers about the event they wouldn’t be too enthused. Basketball has been knocked out of the list of disciplines for the 2010 Games and the disappointment is evident among the players who are here for the ongoing Ramu Memorial basketball tournament.
India’s star hoopster S Robinson is perplexed. “We don’t know why basketball has been scrapped. No one has given us a good reason. The CWG is the only event in which we play alongside players from Europe and Australia. Their standard of basketball is very high. We get a lot of opportunities to learn. It’s sad that we can’t play against top sides.”
Echoing his view was top women’s player Geethu Anna Jose. “They definitely can’t give an excuse that the infrastructure isn’t good enough. If they are hosting an international event, it is their responsibility to see that all arrangements are made on time. If they can include sports like netball, in which we don’t even have a national team, why not basketball?”
Harish Sharma, general secretary of the Basketball Federation of India, said, “The only reason basketball has been omitted from the CWG is because the organisers think we can’t win a medal in the sport. When we placed a bid for hosting the games, basketball was part of the Games. But they changed the provisional team sports list and included archery. It is obviously because they think we stand a better chance of winning a medal in archery.”
Also the sport has received another body blow with the Delhi High Court issuing an interim stay order against the construction of the indoor basketball court in West Delhi last week. This is following a plea that the construction poses an ecological threat.
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