Tall Boy Design

There were also two other youngsters who had made their international debut. Amjyot,19,scored eight points,while Amritpal,age 20,scored 12. Unfortunately,the 69 Amjyot and the 610 Amritpal were anonymous in the shadow of their more impressive team mate Satnam. Their introduction had been part of a conscious strategy to bring more young,tall players into the side. Even at the junior basketball nationals last week and in the youth nationals in Mumbai earlier this year,a number of teams had scouted for and blooded exceptionally tall players.

What may appear to be an obvious choice was anything but,as talent scouting in Indian basketball was sporadic until recently.

Around three years ago,we had a change in thinking. We knew that if we want to compete internationally,then we have to be at least physically at par with our opponents, says BFI CEO,Harish Sharma.

Clear instructions were given to the state un its to especially look for youngsters who were vertically gifted.

Says Rajesh Patel,coach of the Chhattisgarh womens team and also secretary of the Chhattisgarh Basketball Association: We were told that we were putting together personnel not just for the state team,but we were asked to scout for tall players who had the potential to play for India.

A difficult task

This,however,is not an easy search. We are not a particularly tall country. I have to go to outside the state, remote villages,even the Naxal-affected ones,looking for tall players. Of the 20 people you get information about,only one or two will be above six feet. And for an exceptionally tall one someone who is above 6 5 that is more like one in 200, says Patel,who also doubles up as a talent scout.

And even once picked,challenges remain. They arent as flexible or as agile as a regular-sized player. Dribbling takes time and their jump is weak. Lokesh Sharma,611,is one such example. The 15-year-old from Kolkata has been playing the game for just six months and has already been picked for the junior national camp. At the moment,however,Lokesh is struggling with his fitness and movement.

Patel explains: Many of them are quite shy because no one has told them until recently that their height is an advantage. As a result,they lack aggression on court. You cant coach them along with shorter players. They need to be trained in a group,and that can take many years.

Which is why the scouts are looking for younger players. While tall men and women have been picked before,they were usually at an age when they couldnt adapt to the game.

Ideally you want to select players when they are between age 9-15. It is easy for a child of that age to adapt to a new sport. In addition,if he grows to love the game,then he will persevere with it,even in difficult times, says Patel.

At the same time,if he finds a player who is exceptionally tall,he drafts him anyway. After all,he says,Ajmer Singh,who played for India in the 1980 Olympics,was 24 when he took up basketball.

In that sense Satnam has been lucky. After his father responded to an advertisement in a vernacular paper in 2005,Satnam,then only 9 years but already 5 9,was picked up by talent scouts at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy.

While BFIs programme had started only three years ago,the Ludhiana academy had been searching for and training tall youngsters since 2003. Satnam trained at the academy for five years under Dr Subramanian,a former national team coach,before his stint at the IMG Academy in Florida.

Like Patel,Subramanian agrees that while players are ideally picked at an early age,aptitude also plays a role. After six years of training,Satnam has improved on his fitness but is still struggling with his ball handling and shooting abilities. Amritpal,on the other hand,switched from kabbadi only 18 months ago and has already improved dramatically because he is naturally athletic, says Subramanian.

While Satnam is clearly no Yao Ming yet,what he has done has increased the visibility of basketball. Every day we are getting an application at the academy, says Subramanian.

The Ludhiana Basketball Association is looking to scout for talent using methods beyond advertisements and word of mouth. A proposal has been submitted to the state government,requesting schools in every district to send a list of students above the height of 62 and 56 among boys and girls respectively.

No silver bullet

However,simply picking tall players isnt a silver bullet to success. Subramanian says India will still be way behind other teams at the FIBA Asia Championships in Wuhan,China.

They have a larger base of tall youngsters to choose from,and they have been playing in the big leagues for a longer period of time, he says.

Meanwhile,the results of this going-for-tall-players quest,even at the national level,are mixed. Last weeks junior nationals was won by a Tamil Nadu side whose tallest player was 64.

Indeed,as Subramanian says,there will always be the need for players of average height,who are exceptional ball handlers and playmakers. Nothing,however,excites a basketball fan as much as a big man slamming a dunk or powerfully blocking a shot. India coach Kenny Natt,who watched the finals,congratulated both teams,but seemed to single out 6-foot-8 Ankit Panigrahi of MP for praise. You cant teach height, he would say later.