Some of Karnataka’s finest Under-13 basketball players underwent a rigorous 15-day camp in Bengaluru in preparation for the Sub-Junior National basketball championship for boys and girls to be held in Puducherry from Thursday.
But, on Wednesday night, all the children and accompanying parents were informed that State’s boys and girls teams will not participate in the 48th edition of the event. This is the first time in the history that teams from the State have chosen not take part in the basketball nationals.
What’s worse is that the girls’ team had won the championship last year for the first time, and were felicitated by the Karnataka State Basketball Association (KSBBA) for their effort.
“The camp concluded on Tuesday, and on Wednesday evening, they told us to collect the jerseys,” said one of the parents. “When we got there, we were informed by one of the vice presidents that we will not be travelling to the national championships.”
“The children broke down. We all broke down. How? Why can’t Karnataka participate in a national championship?!” she asked, still unable to process the news.
Teams were picked on the basis of the Under-13 State championship which were held at the Sree Kanteerava stadium last month under the aegis of the KSBBA. In fact, the tournament was slotted in haste to fall between the State ‘B’ Division and ‘A’ Division Championships to have time to pick sides in time for the national championship.
“Even we were only informed last night,” said a coaching member of one of the U-13 teams. “We had no idea. We trained so hard. This is just really, really bad for Karnataka basketball.”
“They did say they’ll conduct a prize-money tournament for the kids, but what use is that?” he rued.
The latest social media post sent out by BFI on Thursday has the Karnataka teams slotted in Group A, but a circular sent out later showed the State pencilled out from the schedule. “We were hoping for a last-minute change of heart from KSBBA, but that didn’t happen,” offered a BFI official at the championship.
One of the parents insisted that the decision to pull out of the tournament was kept secret till the last moment to ensure that none of the parents would have the time to take the KSBBA to court. The irked parent did say, that even if futile now, they will take the legal route to ensure justice.
None of the members from the KSBBA was available for comment despite repeated attempts.
There were some concerns at the national level too as it came to light that the Indian women’s team will not participate in the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup Women’s Division ‘B’ tournament in Thailand. They were replaced by Sri Lanka at the last moment. The move.
Even the Under-16 girls’ team did not board the bus for the FIBA Asian Championships in Jordan last month. Going forward, India’s participation in the West Asia Super Cup and the Under-16 boys’ South Asian Basketball Championship in Colombo are also up in the air.
The move, a source confirmed, is because the new FIBA administration is yet to recognise the new BFI administration.
But the Indian men’s team is on schedule to take part in the FIBA Asia Olympic pre-qualifiers from next month. “That’s because the Olympics come under the purview of IOA and IOC, not the FIBA,” said an official.