“Only one week notice for State Basketball Championships?”

The annual Senior National Basketball Championship is set to be held later this month, and as is standard practice various states across India are hosting State Basketball Championships in the lead up to the same.

But it appears that all is not well in some states and questions are being raised against last minute announcement of the dates of some of these State Championships.

In an email letter addressed by Nanded District Basketball Association Secretary Vinod Goswami to Basketball Federation of India Secretary General Chander Mukhi Sharma, Goswami has questioned the functioning of the ad hoc committee of Maharashtra State Basketball Association after its last minute announcement of the dates of the upcoming Maharashtra State Basketball Championship.

Goswami claims that the Championship dates were announced only a week in advance, which has left district teams with no time to prepare properly for the prestigious event, not to mention the travel difficulties that outstation teams face in reaching the venue.

The full letter (dated 5/12/2019) is copy pasted verbatim below:

Respected sir

Greetings from Myself secretary of Nanded dist basketball association ..I would like to clarify few points regarding the funny functioning of adhoc committee for Maharashtra state which is presided by you.

As you being the hon’bl secretary of BFI  you must be having the knowledge about the national championships. 

Today I got the mail from org. Committee for Maharashtra state senior state championship which is going to be held at Bramhapuri from 11th December. Is that one week  sufficient for preparation of district teams to participate in this most prestigious championship? Though more than 60% participating teams will have to travel more than 500 km ? Will they get reservations? Have you ever visited the town where the matches are going to be held?

After the championship you are going to select the state teams… is that 2 days sufficient for the camp? Will the teams  get reservations for national championships or they will be  traveling by flight..

Have you taken consideration about other championships which are already planned to conduct in Maharashtra? 

Sir maharashtra cannot be run by dictatorship way…and when the state association is taken care by Shri.Govind and his team ..pls dont spoil the atmosphere of the state and create confusion…we all have given our life for the game of basketball ..so try to solve the issues and let the game of basketball survive…hoping for the best for the cause of basketball.

 

Vinod Goswami..

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Ekalavyas hasn’t independently verified the above claims, nor have we sought a response from Basketball Federation of India (Since we are fairly certain no response will be forthcoming). But on the assumption that Mr Goswami’s allegations are correct, this raises serious questions as to the functioning of BFI. The State Championships are the basis on which State teams are selected for the Nationals, and it is from the National Championships that the final Indian teams are picked. So last minute and rushed conduct of State Championships adversely affects the quality of the talent pool right from the district level (in terms of not giving districts enough time to conduct their own tryouts) to the national level.