Big financial boost for India's elite hoopsters

Bengaluru: After years of busting knees without remuneration, a select group of national basketball players will receive monthly salaries in the near future. 

Speaking to DH on Monday, BFI president Aadhav Arjuna confirmed the development which had been doing the rounds for a week now.

"Finally, we can say the BFI has the funds to fund our players and we don't have to depend on the government for these things," he said, revealing that the BFI has received close to Rs 14 crore from the latest round of funding. 

"We noticed that some of the best players in the country were getting paid poorly even by their employers, so the moment we got our funds lined up, we knew what we had to do."

While the details of the remuneration will find clarity after the Executive Committee meeting slated for next month, Arjuna revealed that thirty two players are in the process of being identified by the Talent Review Committee and by the Selection Committee across men, women, Under-18 boys and girls.

The groups will be split into A and B. Players from Group A will make Rs 1 lakh per month, while Group B players will take home Rs 50,000 a month. 

The list of players will be updated at the end of every National-level tournament. Moreover, there will be standardised fitness tests run on these players every six months to assess if they will be eligible for the stipend in the next cycle. 

It must be noted that a similar scheme was announced by the BFI in 2011, but the plan to compensate 75 elite players couldn't take off. 

Rule tweak

Arjuna also revealed that, in a move geared to extend the longevity of players at the Junior level, the BFI has decided to tweak the Minimum Playing Time rule at the Youth (Under-16) and Junior (Under-18) age groups at National level tournaments.

While the earlier rule didn't go into the specifics of time management for players, the new rule insists that at least ten out of 12 players in the squad are mandated to play a minimum of one full quarter. 

More significantly, no player can be on the floor in all four quarters, meaning every player, even if on a hot scoring streak, will have to sit out a quarter in each match. 

These are the rules by which the Mini (Under-14) category was governed, but that was done in an effort to accord equal playing time across the board.

In this case, however, while there is an equality in playing time, the decision itself comes in an effort to reduce the chances of fatigue-related injuries.

The rule change also forces the coaches to not depend on their starting five as much, and come up with alternative strategies by utilising other players with varying degrees of skills. 

"Our statistics showed that during the recent nationals coaches were using only 6-7 players from the squad for the entirety of the tournament," said Arjuna. "Most of the starting five end up playing all 40 minutes of the match and they play for five-six days. Naturally there will be injuries. Even at the highest level, even at the Olympics, players don't play as many minutes on the floor.

"Another thing we wanted to do is show up the players who have entered the system through recommendation. This way, the coach has to play them, and since all these games are televised these days, if they don't look like they belong at that level, they will be taken out. This forces coaches to pick teams on merit, it forces them to become accountable for their choices."