New Delhi: Indian basketball received a significant push with the launch of Pro International Basketball League (INBL Pro) here on Wednesday. Set to begin on January 15, the league will feature six teams competing across five venues — Punjab, Gujarat, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai — with the final rounds scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi in March.
“New Zealand is a nation of five million people, yet we’re very good at basketball. To work with a country that has 1.4 billion people, half of which are under the age of 25, for us is very exciting,” said Justin Nelson, commissioner of the NZ NBL. “To be in a situation with a country of five million people, helping a nation of 1.4 billion people, how can you not be excited?”
While NBA has seen representation from Indian-origin players in the likes of Satnam Singh and Sim Bhullar, they did not make the anticipated impact. As a result, aspiring Indian cagers have not had major success stories to draw inspiration from.
“We want to create local heroes out of these people,” said Parveen Batish, the CEO of InBL Pro. “Basketball is already part of the culture so we must give people something to watch out for.”
“The challenge is that basketball internationally is played on wood or indoors. Here, because of the lack of infrastructure, Indians play outside on concrete and so on.”
The InBL auction will be held on January 9, featuring Indian and international players under the age of 25. Each team will also include two international players above 25 who will act as mentors. Indian players are expected to be scouted largely during the basketball Nationals, which will run from January 5-12 in Bhavnagar, Gujarat.
The six franchises will be based in Delhi, Punjab, Chennai, Gujarat, and Mumbai, with the league aiming to ensure Indian representation in Olympics in the next decade and a better finish at the FIBA Asia Cup finals next year. Depending on the commercial success of the men’s league and the assessment of women’s basketball talent, a decision regarding the launch of a women’s InBL league will be made next year.
As part of the collaboration between Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Captains Professional Basketball Pvt Ltd (CPBL), New Zealand Basketball League (NZ NBL) has awarded InBL a franchise, named Indian Panthers. The Panthers will comprise of top 10-12 Indian players from the league who will also get the opportunity to train in Auckland for five months.
