Mangaluru: Aspiring little basketball players in the city were elated and inspired as they got a chance to meet professional Basketball players, as the Indian men’s basketball team visited Mangala Stadium, here on Friday, September 18.
Team India players Amjoyth Singh, Vishesh Raguvanshi, Santnam Singh, Amrit Pal Singh, Siddhanth Shinde, Vinay Kaushik, Rajesh Uppar, Akiel M, Arvind A, Vikas Mor, Akash Hazare, Yadavendra Singh and G S Gill who had come to Nitte University for practice match visited Mangala Stadium in the evening. Among the players, Arvind A and Rajesh Uppar are from Karnataka.
The players interacted with the children and gave them tips on basketball.
“Our team will perform to sustain the present ranking of 11 and further improve on it in the forthcoming 28{+t}{+h}FIBA Asia Basketball Championship to be held in China”, said Sat Prakash Yadav, the Head Coach of the Senior Indian Men’s Basketball team.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Yadav said the Indian team have done well against Malaysia and Japan in championship held last year.
“We will defeat Malaysia this time. We have better chances against Japan,” he said and added, “Last year we played well against Iran, which is a strong team in the league. We hope to perform well.’
Yadav said with absence of three of its main players the going would be tough in the league matches.
“This is my realistic assessment,” said Yadav, who will be accompanying 12 members of the India team that will be leaving to China for the championship commencing on September 23.
Yadav was here on Friday along with members of Senior India Basketball team at the U.S. Mallya Indoor Stadium on the invitation of Mangalore Basketball Club to meet kids being trained by the Club.
The team had come to the stadium after finishing their two rounds of training held at the new state-of-art Indoor basketball court of Nitte University at Nittte in Udupi district.
