4 junior cagers from disqualified team called up for UP state camp

Vinayak Padmadeo

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New Delhi, April 25

In a controversial decision, the Uttar Pradesh Basketball Association (UPBA) has selected members of the team that was disqualified for fielding ineligible players at the junior state championships for the state team camp. On the complaint from Gautam Budh Nagar district that several players in the Hapur team were from outside the district, the UPBA withdrew the team from the semifinals of the championships held in Baraut on April 18-22.

However, four from the same team, Aradhya Mishra, Harshit, Abhiyudang and Jatin Hooda, have been called up for the state camp under coach Pradeep Tomar to prepare for the Junior Nationals, to be held in Indore from May 8.

Interestingly, Tomar was also the coach of the Hapur team. Tomar was the assistant coach to Veselin Matic at the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers, where India lost 50-63 and 53-86 against Kazakhstan and Iran, respectively.

In their joint complaint, the chief coach, Chandan Sharma, and team manager, Keshav Bharadwaj, of Gautam Budh Nagar cited the cases of Subham Rawat, who had represented Ghaziabad in the U-17 championships in 2023, and Krishna Tyagi, who is a school student in Noida and a resident of Ghaziabad, as proof of the violations.

“I request you to please take necessary action of debarring the district Hapur team. Please take strict action so that these kinds of things are not repeated in the future,” read the complaint letter addressed to the UPBA president and secretary general.

However, UPBA secretary general Virendra Vikram Singh said since action was taken against the Hapur team, there was no need to bar other players from attending the preparatory camp. “We took action, the team was withdrawn. We did what was required of us under the circumstances,” Singh told The Tribune. “We have not selected the boys who were named in the complaint. Asking us to bar all the players is not correct as this would be very harsh on others,” he added.