Kevin Garnett, the long-suffering anchor of the never-quite-there Minnesota Timberwolves, has been pumping up India’s basketball prospects while on an Asian publicity tour. (Thanks, tipster Kumar!) Garnett said he felt a lot of enthusiasm for the sport in India, and suggested the country might emerge into the world game in the same way that China has started to do behind Yao Ming.
Of course, until some Indian school or club produces a 7-foot freak of nature with half decent ball handling skills, this scenario will lack a crucial component for take-off. Better perhaps to take the grassroots approach, as another major American sports organization, Major League Baseball, is doing. In November, after the US season is over, MLB’s Envoy Program will send a team of coaches to conduct a month of baseball clinics in five Indian cities: Delhi, Bombay, Chennai, Calcutta, and Imphal.
Uh… Imphal?
I know you don’t need me to tell you where Imphal is! It’s the capital of Manipur, of course, a largely “tribal” state in India’s far northeast. Seems like baseball has been thriving in Manipur for several decades, ever since (it is thought) American troops deployed there introduced it during World War II.
“Thriving” is a relative term, of course, since there isn’t a single dedicated baseball diamond in the state. However there are 26 organized men’s baseball clubs, 4 women’s teams, and a governing association; they play a regular season, improvising diamonds on fields borrowed from other sports.
A New York and Imphal venture called First Pitch is working on promoting Manipur baseball and raising funds to build a dedicated baseball stadium and equip the teams. A local club has already donated land. The project’s American chair, Muriel Peters, and Manipuri executive director, Somi Roy, both come from the film world. Director Mirra Bank is filming a documentary. A five-minute promo by a Manipuri director set to a translation of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is here.
Perhaps a part of this venture’s appeal in the philanthropic world is that it’s just that little bit hokey. But who knows? Perhaps a generation from now, Manipuri players will be commonplace in the American game. That’s why they call it Field of Dreams…
Wow. Nice article. As a NBA fan, I am pleasantly surprised a NBA star is visiting Asia to spread awareness about the game.
However, I felt NBA international players would be more suitable than local domestic players (i.e. Manu Ginobili, Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Yao Ming, Andrea Barganini etc). Would love to see the Argentine Manu “the flopper” Ginobili in India. It would make more sense, in my opinion, for a European or South America NBA player to visit South Asia because our body type, atletic ability and POSSIBLY bball skills are more similar to theirs. But I could be wrong.
Anyways, nice read!
Manipuri women have also dominated in football, winning several national championships.
“Of course, until some Indian school or club produces a 7-foot freak of nature with half decent ball handling skills, this scenario will lack a crucial component for take-off”
North India has 6-7 footers and ball handling skills require practice. Though, excellent hand-eye coordination certainly helps…
Unfortunately, sports in most Asian countries are not well-developed for kids at all. In India, there is a complete lack of physical space, equipment, coaches, and more crucially, TIME (since most kids have to study all the time) and parental encouragement. There is not really a well-developed culture of sports out there for kids. In the very elite schools, they do have gyms, coaches, sometimes pools, etc. but again when you have your entrance exam for IIT, IIM, or AIIMS coming up in 10 years, who is going to play a lot of sports? As for the poor people (the majority of the population), I’ve often seen kids who look like they could be natural athletes…they move with poise, coordination, balance, and speed. What’s lacking there is good nutrition first of all, right from the prenatal stage, and then the fact that those kids don’t really have a childhood at all. Before they know it they’re working just to help out the family. By the time they’re grown up they are stunted, weak, stressed-out, and whatever athletic spark they might have had has gone completely wasted. As for rural kids, yes they play traditional sports like kabbadi, etc. but as far as international sports are concerned, again, a big lack of coaching and equipment. Contrast that to the US (and presumably Europe) where the athletic options are limitless (for middle class suburban kids at least). As soon as you turn 4, you’re playing t-ball and kiddie soccer. At home you play with nerf footballs, basketballs, etc. Your school will have tons of space dedicated to play, you will have a nice gym with a trained teacher. You’ll be riding your bike with your friends all day (my memories are from the 80s, maybe kids today are a lot more sedentary). In gym, they teach you the basics of soccer, baseball, hockey, football. In high school the options literally explode. Until India can build an infrastructure even remotely like that, the athletic abilities of the 1.3 billion people will go untapped and squandered. Oh, and of course, one still has to fight the mentality that CHESS is a sport.
Ah, Imphal. Moody, derelict and dangerous as hell, the city is a main character in Siddhartha Deb’s excellent and quietly nightmarish novel “An Outline of the Republic” (published in India and the UK as “Surface).
Baseball’s all well and good, but the philanthropically-minded might do well to give Deb’s book a once-over if they’d rather avoid a sticky end out there on the frontlines of India’s forgotten war.
One more thing: given the popularity of tobacco-chewing among baseball afficionados, Indian converts to the sport should be vigilant if they choose to chew paan while desecrating the nation’s cricketing legacy.
The extremists, apparently, consider it a shootable offence.
This actually might not be that far away. Granted, the real problem as Amitabh points out is the lack of sporting outlets for children in India. But, there are more tall people in India than people realize. For example, I’m 6’2″ and I’m the shortest male of my generation in my family. The tallest one is 6’6″. However, I guess one more problem that’s facing us is that all the tall people I’ve seen in India are also total bean poles.
Siddarth…”.. freak of nature” ?
That could be put differenly, maybe.
it could, but i didn’t. what’s up with the nitpicking today? can’t a brother get a little poetic license?
hands Siddhartha his license
Well, i guess today is a day for licensceousness . Dubya indulged too 🙂
For Indian women, lack of money and social pressure could be two big factors for not taking up sports professionally. At Delhi Univ in the 90s, I had two (female) classmates who had been athletes at school. Both had reached a certain level in sports – one of them was among the probables for the national hockey team and the other was on the state basketball team. They loved sports, but gave it up as soon as they entered college. When asked why, they said they spent a lot of their own money on equipment and travel and it wasn’t fair to expect their families to continue financial support. In addition, the considerable travel and practice after school/college hours was not looked upon favorably in their conservative communities, though their own families were very supportive.
“Freak of nature”….maybe but there are allegations such as
“In early 2006, former Newsweek editor and author Brook Larmer released “Operation Yao Ming”, a controversial book in which he claims that as a child Yao was forced against his will to play basketball by and for the Chinese government. In addition, Larmer alleges that Yao’s father, 6-foot-10 (2.08 m) Yao Zhiyuan, and mother, 6-foot-2 (1.88 m) Fang Fengdi, both national team basketball players, were, on retirement, “encouraged” to wed, with the aim of producing an athletic if not also extremely tall future son. This allegation has yet to be supported by outside documentations or evidence and both the senior Yao and Mdm Fang have denied these allegations. A Sports Illustrated article pointed out if this were really the case, there would have been at least five Yao Mings and China would be unbeatable. In reality, Yao Ming is the only child. Yao Ming has never made mention that he was forced to play basketball.
Among other unsubstantiated allegations made in the book are the possible use of growth hormone treatment by the Chinese government on its athletes, although Yao is not explicitly named as having received any treatments. [3]. This book has come under fire from reporters and the Chinese government, due in part to the book’s racist overtones and depiction of the Chinese national sports program as “Stalinistic” in nature.”
great article.. i LOVE the nba… and for garnett to go to india is awesome.. yeah, the facilities are few and far between..but for the nba to pursue interest in india is saying something.. ya never know.. the next star might be a ‘kulwant singh’.. :)… how awesome would that be? i’m just seeing the vision now..and smiling…
i think basketball requires too much coaching infrastructure for india to get good very soon. plus you need to play better competition to get better, and who are india going to play to get better? the balkan countries are good, but they are relatively smaller, and for some reason they had a lot of coaches out there. i don’t see it happening for india but you never know
Manipur’s got nothing.
It’s Goa, my Goa, that dominates Indian baseball thoroughly, women’s and men’s versions both. Check out who wins the national championship year after year.
KG is in INDIA, and I’m here in Oz)?!!! Seems like I’m destined not to meet the Big Ticket in person. When my company sponsored a charity event in Minneapolis where he was the main attraction, I was in Atlanta on official duty. Damn!
So the brother has some love for basketball in desh. Now I like him even more. Can’t the same about my Wolves, though 🙁 For starters, they need to apologise to Flip Saunders and get him back. Ditto for the Vikings and Moss.
Sidhartha, I strongly feel that this is yet another subtle tactic on the American administration’s part to propagate their imperialistic agenda. For an underprivileged country like India, western sport is an unaffordable luxury. Citizens should stop wasting time and money partaking in pointless activities conforming to western ideas of leisure, and dedicate that time in the fields toiling towards furthering India’s economy; they can always turn to traditional sport for essential leisure.
The argument that sport fosters friendship and understanding between nations is mere sanctimonious platitude. If the white man wanted to be friends with the native, instead of teaching the native to converse in English, he would have learned “Hindustani” himself. If America truly believes that sport can make a difference to India’s rural poor, they should start by introducing and promoting Indian sport in the USA; not the other way around. The Baseball grounds are perfectly suited for Gilli Danda and Kabbaddi can easily be accommodated on a Basketball court. This approach will ensure that true Indian talent is appreciated, encouraged and remunerated. Also, as these Indian sports gain popularity, white conglomerates will pump in money as sponsorship and trigger further economic growth in India. Moreover, Nike and Addidas will set up plants in India manufacturing Gilli Danada equipment and branded linseed oil for Kabbaddi players! I know that a few of you will not agree with me, but then, we live in a world that increasingly rejects pragmatic enterprise for contrived baloney.
IÂ’ll go play some Squash (it is a South Asian sport; the whites merely stumbled upon it first) now; you all take care and peace.
I meant: siddhartha. sorry.
UberMetroMallu, you’re too polite to do a SpoorLam 🙂
“I wish I was little bit taller, I wish I was a baller…”
I think you’re absolutely right if you’re talking about competition on the world stage. However, I draw an analogy between soccer, or football, and basketball, in that you don’t need very much to get kids to start playing. All you need is a ball and a bunch of hoops, which are not very expensive. I think it’s no coincidence that both those sports, unlike, say tennis, are ones where the players come from the working and lower class.
At least this is one sport where the pitcher [bowler] won’t get called for throwing [chucking] snigger Did some google legwork. It is quite the oddity to have Baseball in Manipur of all places.
Everything in India is done at 25% except for maybe eduction. You watch a indian movie and all the dancers are out of sinc and the live shows I have seen on tv are even worse. The problem in India is there is no competition. Rich people get everything handed to them and they dont have to worry about any determined poor person who is so hungry for success that he puts 100% into his goal because in the end the rich guy gets everything.
South Indians have tall people too…..like my brother, a mallu and 6’8″ 240lbs….damnit, if he wasnt forced to maintain decent grades and had more time to practice at a younger age…the world may never know
😉
yeah but then its called, “lets run with the ball and then throw it underarm toward the hoop” i saw mad ballers with that kind of skill when i was in the desh. trust me, they can run with the ball and then stop on a dime, its amazing
no but actually i guess there are probably ballers in india who can play, and personally i’m not one to comment on anyone’s skillz
You know..we should be improving facilities up there! High time. Besides, Manipur is the best team in India in Women’s Hockey (Besides Jharkand and I am not counting the Railways)..
Plus, the Manipur football teams ALWAYS do well!! Now that KG has come down, any chance NIKE will convince Ronnie to come down next?! 😀
JAT
How do you know there are 6 7 footers in northern india?