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Journalism of Courage
Among team sports,basketball comes only second to ice-hockey in terms of the pace at which it’s played. On Sunday,however,things heated up even further on the basketball courts at Don Bosco School as Mumbai witnessed a unique and brand-new version of the sport. In organisers Funatic’s words,this was basketball’s very own T20 format,known officially as the ‘Double Double’.
So how fast-paced are we talking here? Well,the duration of the game is a total of 12 minutes,two halves of six minutes each,with the first team to 20 points declared the winner. In comparison to the 24 seconds they have in the conventional format,teams only have between 12 to 14 seconds of ball posession before having to shoot the ball,ensuring that the game never stalls. And with the teams literally chasing a fixed target,the rapid pace is maintained right from the first whistle.
Double-Double is the brainchild of a bunch of sports enthusiasts who run Funatic,and the concept behind it,explains Saurabh Nishar was much to do with the disparity in the standards of the basketball teams around the country.
“Having played in a number of tournaments at state and national level over the last 8-10 years,we were aware of the prevailing standards. Especially at school and college levels,there are too many one-sided games. The non-professional players,meanwhile,hardly get time to practice and end up being unfit to last the 40 minutes of a full game,” explains Nishar,one of the brains behind the new format.
“Double-double will help those kind of guys,as you don’t require that kind of stamina here. All in all it suits the Indian game to the hilt,” he adds. The name itself comes from the commonly used basketball term,’double-double’,which is basically the accumulation of a double-digit number total by a hoopster in two statistical categories. The 10-team invitational Dawn 2 Dusk tournament on Sunday saw some of the top teams from the city,including the YMCAs,Central Railway and Indian Gymkhana apart from hosts Savio Club participating. Nishar reveals that the organizers had already tested the format in a intra-club tournament prior to organizing the event at the Don Bosco grounds.
“The format ensures that there are no boring matches. The weaker teams get blown away within five minutes,considering that you just have to score 20 points to win. That’s how it should be. It makes for exciting basketball with the energy levels remaining high throughout,” says Nishar,who also has worked with Shooting for Success.
Most of the rules for Double Double have basically been construed by recalibrating the FIBA rule-book. And there are some exciting new additions to. Like players being ejected on their third personal fouls. Not to forget teams only getting to use three substitutions in all. A team cannot play with less than four players at any given time though,with that eventuality resulting in a forfeit.
Not only is the game fast-paced,the coaches too have to be constantly on their feet. There are no rolling substitutions. And a player cannot be brought back unless you have one of your three substutions left,which is unlikely. So the coaches have to be extremely tactful. The players have to be smarter too with regards to making fouls,” explains Nishar,while adding that the free throws will improve the standard of shooting in India drastically. “We do not have the speed or the size of the Americans. So I guess like the Europeans,India too needs to develop shooting as their main forte and something like Double Double will really help us in that regard. This will improve our shooting and strengthen Indian basketball overall,” he adds.
Then there is the cherry-picking rule too which will ensure that despite the rapid pace,the game doesn’t allow any unfair play. Unlike in basketball’s original avatar,cherry-picking in Double Double is not just frowned upon it’s debarred. And not only are the points scored by a defaulter through cherry-picking disallowed; the possession of the ball is handed to the opposing team. Though the teams did take a while to warm up to the new format,the action did prove to be intense with some of the matches being decided by free-throw shootouts. Central Railway walked away with the senior men’s title while Don Bosco pipped St Cathedral for the juniors’ crown.
Only time will tell whether Double Double manages to leap into the imagination of the basketball fraternity all around the country like its founders hope it does. But at the Don Bosco courts on Sunday night,basketball’s latest avatar certainly took its first step towards creating a niche.
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