New Delhi: Indian basketball received a significant push as the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) launched the Pro International Basketball League (INBL Pro) here on Wednesday. Set to begin on January 15, the league will feature six teams competing across five venues — Punjab, Gujarat, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai — with the final rounds scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi in March.
The InBL auction will be held on January 9, featuring Indian and international players under the age of 25. Each team will also include two international players above 25 who will act as mentors. Indian players are expected to be scouted largely during the basketball Nationals, which will run from January 5-12 in Bhavnagar, Gujarat.
“We want to create local heroes out of these people,” said Parveen Batish, the CEO of InBL Pro. “Basketball is already part of the culture so we must give people something to watch out for.”
“The challenge is that basketball internationally is played on wood or indoors. Here, because of the lack of infrastructure, Indians play outside on concrete and so on.”
The six franchises will be based in Delhi, Punjab, Chennai, Gujarat, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It was announced that the top 10-12 Indian performers from the InBL will then comprise a new team called the Indian Panthers that will compete at the New Zealand Basketball League (NZ NBL).
As a part of this collaboration, Indian players will train in Auckland and represent India for five months competing against other professional teams in international games.
“New Zealand is a nation of five million people, yet we’re very good at basketball. To work with a country that has 1.4 billion people, half of which are under the age of 25, for us is very exciting,” said Justin Nelson, commissioner of the NZ NBL.
“To be in a situation with a country of five million people, helping a nation of 1.4 billion people, how can you not be excited?”
While NBA has seen representation from Indian-origin players in the likes of Satnam Singh and Sim Bhullar, they did not make the anticipated impact. As a result, aspiring Indian cagers have not had major success stories to draw inspiration from.
Depending on the commercial success of the men’s league and the assessment of women’s basketball talent, a decision regarding the launch of a women’s InBL league will be made next year.
