Rising star in basketball

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It’s never a surprise to find Malayali girls in the Indian basketball team in every category.

And, almost every season, a few promising young girls make their debut, but it has not been so smooth a sailing for the junior boys from the state.

In fact, in the last couple of years, not a single boy from here made it to the junior Indian team for any major international event though Malayali men such as Eudric Pereira and Hareesh Koroth have been occasionally finding their way into the senior side. But, all hope is not lost.

It will be an impressive achievement for Changanacherry boy Sreerag N. Nair to debut for the country in the 22nd FIBA Asia Under-18 championship that begins at Ulan Bator in Mongolia on Friday.

The Plus-Two student of St Joseph’s HSS, Pulikunnu, who hails from Perunna, is the only representative from Kerala this year. And, practically, in the next few years, he can be counted on for making his international debut.

India is placed in Group A with China, Lebanon and Hong Kong. India’s first match is against Lebanon on Friday. The championship is the qualifying event for next year’s FIBA U19 World Championship to be played in Czech Republic from June 27 to July 7.

The top three teams from the 22nd FIBA Asia U18 Championship will represent FIBA Asia at Czech Republic. China, Korea and Chinese Taipei were the three teams that represented FIBA Asia in 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship, which was played in Latvia.

The present youth team is believed to be doing well and if India qualifies for the world championship, Sreerag could be making history and perhaps opening a channel for more boys from the State to follow his footsteps.

Meanwhile, this is the first time Mongolia is hosting an FIBA event. For India, China is the biggest opponent, as they have ruled the event in the last 18 occasions, winning 9 gold, 6 silver and 2 bronze medals.

The 12-member team

Ajay Pratap Singh (Chhattisgarh), Shyam Sundar (Chattisgargh), Akash Bhasin (Madhya Pradesh), Amit Kanerjee (Madhya Pradesh), Kushmeet Singh (Punjab), Palpreet Singh (Punjab), Loveneet Singh (Punjab), Narender (Haryana), Rakesh (Haryana), Sreerag N Nair (Kerala), Karan Joshua (Karnataka), Swaminathan Karthikeyan (Tamil Nadu)