Tamil Nadu army takes position for India in Maldives

It looks as though Tamil Nadu is following the same lead in basketball as there are six members from the state, more specifically based in Chennai, find a place in the 12-member Indian team for the South Asian Championship in Maldives starting next week.

Rikin Pethani, Akilan (Income Tax) Jeevanandan, Prasanna Venkatesh (IOB), Muin Bek Hafeez (JIT) and Bala Dhaneswaran are part of the team that has illustrious names like Vishesh Briguvanshi and Amritpal Singh raring to go at the championship.

This is by far the maximum representation from Tamil Nadu in the national side. Interestingly, the state side has not won the championship this year and even when they were champions between 2000-2004, they did not have as many members in the national side.

“TN had two members, Jayasankar Menon and me, in the side in the 1990s. For a couple of matches, Sendhureswaran was also in the squad,” recalled CV Sunny, the former Indian international. 

TN became a formidable force by the turn of the century when they started winning the nationals with S Robinson leading the attack. “That team had four members in the Indian team. Apart from Robinson, Shabbir Ahmed, Gopinath and Sridhar played for India together,” said Sunny and added it was normal because TN were champions then.

“Compared to that side from the state,, the current one is not strong. Maybe, the numbers are there because of some dropouts,” noted Sunny,a professional coach now. 

Rikin, Prasanna, Akilan and Jeevanandan had played for India in the last few years but the entry of 20-year-old Muin Bek from among the junior probables was unexpected. At a time when it was difficult to break into the Tamil Nadu senior side in basketball, Muin got the vital break earlier this year at the Puducherry nationals and has not looked back since then. 

Rikin Pethani feels professional leagues like the UBA that had a Chennai team in it would help Indian basketball grow. “The Indian team is really performing well in the Asian Championship since a couple of years. The team’s strength is its defence, shooting percentage and of course the team spirit. I personally don’t find any weaknesses in the team right now,” said Rikin. 

Rikin is confident that India would defend its title in the South Asia meet.