Satara teams score thrilling one-point victories

The girls match was evenly fought, with the Thane girls enjoying superior co-ordination in offence. The Satara defence seemed to lax a bit, as Madhura Bodas and Gayatri Manolikar rung the baskets. What came to Satara’s rescue was their brilliant shooting from the periphery. With Priyadarshini Patil and Gayatri Manolikar dong a good job of blocking the drives of the dangerous Mithila Gujar, who has twice represented the state in the senior nationals, Mithila reverted to outside shooting and kept her team abreast of the Thane girls.

It was Satara’s second win, after having beaten Mumbai North in the morning.

MA Aziz Dead: Basketball referee andveteran member of the basketball fraternity, MA Aziz passed away this morning. He was in his late seventies. Aziz was closely associated with the working of Mastan YMCA, a club with a strong basketball tradition in Nagpada. It is said that Aziz was to Mastan what the late Bachoo Khan was to Nagpada Neighbourhood House. Aziz’s son, Asad, was also a keen basketball player and plays for the local team Income-Tax.

As a mark of respect, Mumbai South-East boys did not take the court in the state championships today.

Results

Boys: Mumbai North 54 (Sachin More 10, Lino Gracias 9) bt Nashik 30 (Kishor Kharade 13); Pune 51 (Ameya Bhat 12, Apoorv Sontakke 14) bt Chandrapur 29 (Viru Yadav 12); Mumbai South-West 78 (Rajnikant Acharya 18, Rafique Shaikh 12, Hussain Shaikh 10, Aditya Vaid 17) bt Akola 34 (Amit Yelve 11, Amol Deshmukh 14); Satara 45 (Jitesh J 12, Rohan G 9) bt Latur 44 (SG Mane 14, SB Raibole 12) H.T. 18-19; Mumbai Central 57 (Rohan Kumar 18, Siddharth Shukla 9) bt Chandrapur 35 (Rohan B14).

Girls: Satara 51 (Mithila Gujar 26, Rashmi Yevle 13) bt Bombay North 34 (Loveena Figueiredo 24); Satara 46 (Mithila Gujar 29 (3×3)) bt Thane 45 (Gayatri Manolikar 19, Madhura Bodar 18) H.T. 23-27.

MSBA draws a blank

Basketball is a unique game. It is probably the only sport where the Maharashtra State Championships starts without a draw. The Maharashtra State Basketball Association (MSBA) junior state Championships commenced today at the Fr. Agnel Complex, Vashi. Nearly ten matches were completed. But ask MSBA officials for fixtures, and the standard reply is “we are still making them.”

Not surprising, MSBA has been practising this fine art — what management experts would call crisis management — for years now. They possibly know no other way of doing things. Tell them that every other sport has something called a draw made days in advance of the event, and you hear something like, “we believe in being flexible,” in response. Under a regime of such flexible mismanagement,someone has to suffer. It is usually the players.

Latur and Satara boys had to wait a full two hours under the sun before their match began. No one knew who was to officiate the matches. No one really cared.

Another team, the girls from Mumbai South-East, were told their match would start at 6.00 pm. When the team arrived, the match had been shifted to 9 pm. No one consulted the players or the coach of the team. But it is not to blame MSBA. They have a precedent ahead of them. For that is how the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) functions. Is there any reason why the state body should behave differently?