Punjab girls short of Nationals level

Indervir Grewal

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 8

The Punjab girls were shown the door by an under-par Chhattisgarh in the semifinals of the ongoing junior National Basketball. Despite their shaky performance, underlined by a lot of misses, the ease with which the defending champions took apart the hosts, winning 78-49, exposed the level of the Punjab team.

But even before the semifinal began, as the girls walked in, the visible height advantage of the Chhattisgarh team made it easy to predict the winner. While the Chhattisgarh team had one six-feet-plus player and two players just short of six feet, the Punjab team had no one even close to six feet.

That proved a huge disadvantage for the hosts. But even if the height disparity had not been there, the result would have been similar, as has been the case in the recent past. The Punjab women had been a dominant forceat both the junior and senior levels, from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. While the senior team finished in the top-two 13 times, winning seven gold medals, the junior team finished in the top-two 11 times, including winning seven gold, in that period. But times have changed and the Punjab women have not won a Nationals medal in almost 15 years. That’s a stark contrast with the men’s teams. While the men are always among the favourites at every Nationals, the women have not been considered a medal prospect in almost two decades.

“Punjab have been in the top four for many years. But we are way behind the top three teams,” said Punjab Basketball Association’s honorary secretary general Teja Singh Dhaliwal. “The slump started in the 1990s when the two main centres, in Amritsar and Jalandhar, were shut for a few years. They were never properly revived.”

Till date there isn’t a proper training centre for girls. There are only two girls’ academies in the state – one in Amritsar and one in Ludhiana – with about 40 trainees in total. “There are not enough girls. Many of our taller girls graduated to the senior level and we haven’t found the right replacements,” said Punjab coach Narinder Pal. “That’s the reason our men’s teams are doing well and the womenare struggling.”

The boys’ academy in Ludhiana has become one of India’s most famous, especially with Satnam Singh getting into the NBA. And then there are the different centres, though not many, that are feeding players to the Ludhiana academy. But why has the men’s success not been replicated in the women’s section? “The Ludhiana academy has become famous and we have boys coming from all over. It has promoted a sort of basketball culture in the state. But that is missing among the women,” said Dhaliwal.

“It’s not that there aren’t tall girls in Punjab. We find many in villages but most of the times the parents don’t allow them to move away from their homes,” he added. This underlines the need for centres all over the state so that the girls don’t have to move away from their homes at an early age.

In contrast, the Chhattisgarh women’s teams have been in the top three for many years now. The main reason has been the academy in Bhilai. “We have over 100 girls training there,” said Chhattisgarh coach Sangeeta Das, herself a product of the academy.

Punjab boys in final

The Punjab boys fought back after a shaky start to beat Delhi 85-74 in the semifinals and set up the title clash against Tamil Nadu here today. After trailing 20-13 in the first quarter, the Punjab boys drew level five minutes after the second quarter. The teams stayed neck-and-neck till the third quarter. But in the final quarter, the hosts, cheered on by a vociferous crowd, surged ahead to win the match.