CHENNAI: Despite 10 years in a sport of peripheral recognition in the country, Geethu Anna Jose has learnt to appreciate most things in life. Among the few things she detests is to be commiserated. But fate it is to be commiserated almost after every international outing. Fate it is, often, to be the best on the court, but to wallow in the loser’s dugout.
For all her skill-set and personal landmarks, national recognition hasn’t been that forthcoming. Her list of achievements runs long and she has consistently been shortlisted for the Arjuna, only to be persistently overlooked in the final stage. She was the first-ever Indian woman to feature in the Australian Basketball League, for Ringwood Hawks and emerged the most valuable player (2008). The following year, she was called for trials in the WNBA league in the US but unfortunately missed out. Still, she is deprived of token recognition.
Not that it matters much, and she doesn’t grouse. “For me, the game comes first. Fame, money and recognition are all secondary. It’s the game that helped me achieve all of these things,” she says.
It is almost as if she is resigned to her fate. “Though there were many deserving candidates like Shiba Maggon in recent times, basketball being a team game was in a way a disadvantage for being nominated for the Arjuna. When I started playing, the only woman basketballer to have won the Arjuna was Suman Sharma, who received it in 1983. In my mind, only one woman receiving the award was like a stumbling block,” she admits.
So she is not overtly excited when her name was again nominated for the award. “Obviously, it will be a great honour to be feted by your country. I hope that with this recognition, more girls will be inspired to do better and also take up the sport,” she says.
Hers is the plight of diamonds amidst plain stones. But uncomplainingly, she has trudged on, quietly, and almost invisibly, carrying on her lithe shoulders the hopes of a nation. On the court, it is as though she was omnipresent, acquainting herself with every square inch of the surface. One moment she swathes thorough the stodgy opposition fence, the next second she moves gazelle-like to the backcourt, arms up in air to defy her opponent.
Her strain of excellence might have been lost in the heap of mediocrity around, but she stands out. And if she is not deemed good enough for the Arjuna, the process of recognising an athlete’s efforts might seem a meaningless exercise.