BENGALURU:India played some decent basketball against Jordan, but lost 88-102 in their all-important World Cup Asia qualifier at the Kanteerava Stadium here on Friday. With this defeat — their third straight one — India’s hopes of reaching the next round are almost over.
Despite a solid performance from Satnam Singh (20) and Aravind Annadurai (28), they lacked firepower, which was supposed to be provided by superstars Amritpal Singh and Amjyot Singh. The latter two, who play their professional basketball in Australia (NBL) and US (NBA G League) respectively, had arrived in the city earlier this week. Their names, surprisingly, did not feature on the roster on the FIBA official site, though the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) had already announced the duo names in the squad on Saturday. There seems to be a reason for that.
The BFI took a strong stance on Amritpal and Amjyot being absent from their previous qualifier matches in November. Amritpal missed India’s match against Syria, citing his father’s illness. Amjyot remained unavailable against Lebanon and Syria. BFI had sent the list of probables for the Jordan and Lebanon games without the star duo. The body was not aware if they would make themselves available for these upcoming matches, which was another reason as to why they decided against picking Amjyot and Amritpal.
Though the two confirmed their participation, it was too late. The BFI, after knowing about their confirmation, wrote to FIBA for their inclusion, but it was answered in the negative.
“Because they didn’t play for India in the past, the trust between the selectors and them was broken. Our disciplinary committee was looking into it. So they were not on the list of 24 we initially sent to FIBA. We could not be sure that they were going to be available,” said BFI secretary general Chander Mukhi Sharma. “By the time they confirmed, it was too late. We wrote to FIBA but they replied to us yesterday afternoon stating that they could not play.”
It can’t be said if the BFI has done a good job or not by excluding Amjyot and Amritpal from the probables, but their inclusion could have helped India in such a tight game. They felt their absence big-time. Despite Satnam and Annadurai, India’s chances took a serious dip even before tip-off. Amritpal and Amjyot could perhaps have been the missing pieces in this game.
ashim.sunam@newindianexpress.com