Muinbek looks for the big break

He is now one of the young guns in a game in which Tamil Nadu dominated in the last decade. To break into the senior side in basketball is a difficult task for a youngster even now though TN does not have the same status as undisputed champions. There are many players who have donned the senior India colours and the youngsters have to watch them and bide their time before someone drops out. 

Last year, Muinbek was part of the side that won the bronze in Mysore but his role was confined to the bench. He believes his luck could change this time in January when TN participates in the Nationals in Pondicherry. “I hope things change this year because the team picked this year has many youngsters,” says the mechanical engineering student from Krishnagiri.  

Muin is currently flitting from camp to camp, as he is also preparing for the All India Inter-varsity Basketball Championship for Anna University. He has not forgotten the last final in the same event when Anna University lost by two points. 

The Jeppiar forward, who attended the Gopalnatha school in Salem before he was recommended by coach Mani Mozhi to attend a trial in Chennai by JIT saw his basketball hopes soaring high in the last two years. He became the top scorer for the TN junior side that won the National in Kochi and since then he has been the best scorer for Jeppiar team in all the State and National-level meets. 

Muinbek admires ONGC player Visesh Brighvansi as a role model. He has attended a 50-day camp in IMG Florida last year and that, he expects, would come in handy when he plays in big events next year. The trip was sponsored by his college, JIT. 

Director of JIT, Marie Wilson, has no doubt that the boy would make it big on the national scene.“Muinbek is not only an asset to  JIT basketball team, he is surely an asset to the nation as well. 

The dynamic young boy from Krishnagiri joined our institution two years back as a raw hand.  However his hard work and discipline made him such a star hoopster. Already the JIT management sent him to the world famous IMG Academy at Florida in United States for a month long training. 

Hope the boy’s awesome performance in the backboard as well as the forward line, definitely he will play in the top league,” says Wilson.