India is a country that possesses admiration for various sports. And over the last 5 years or so, the fastest-growing of the bunch has arguably been basketball. Due to this, the Indian National Basketball League (INBL) was brought about in 2021. Recognized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) today, the league owes the lion’s share of its success to CEO Parveen Batish. And recently, he sat down with us for an exclusive interview, discussing how far India is from reaching the NBA, along with a few other things too.
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Despite spending quite a bit of his career in the business consultancy field, Batish has always been involved with basketball. He has even been a coach in Australia’s ‘National Basketball League’, a league LaMelo Ball famously played in ahead of being drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Bringing his experience back to India, the Roehampton University graduate discussed exciting ideas to help Indian Basketball. And the INBL is at the very center of it.
Parveen Batish explains innovative structure to help develop basketball talent in India
The CEO of the INBL is not a man who jumped into this project unprepared. When asked what set his league apart from the many others in India and across the world, he promptly discussed the objectives of his revolutionary new structure. Here is what he said.
“Our objective is very simple. One is to increase the number of people playing basketball. The second is to improve the talent level of the players and coaches in the sport.”
The structure itself is a rather simple one. It begins on the community level, where anyone can put together teams to enter the tournaments the INBL organizes. There is no need to belong to a club or association of any kind, which ensures the inclusivity of people from all backgrounds.
When someone registers for these tournaments, they register on the FIBA system. This, in turn, makes the participants official prospects, allowing them, and India as a whole, to earn ‘FIBA points’. This affects the overall rankings for both and increases the number of competitions they are eligible to partake in.
Moving on from this, the league simply takes the winners to the next level. They not only open the door to state, and national competitions, but also allow the prospects access to elite academies, and the best coaches from within, and even outside the country.
Eventually, if a team gets high enough, they get a chance to compete on the world stage. For example, the winners of the 2023 INBL 3×3 Men’s competition will now get to compete in the FIBA International tournament.
As a result, athletes will gain exposure, perspective, and more than all else, a drive to be better. However, when it came to discussing the overarching goal here, Parveen Batish wasn’t ready to make any grand promises just yet.
How far is India from having a player of significance in the NBA?
The NBA is at the very top of the basketball world. Everyone wants to compete with the likes of LeBron James, and Stephen Curry, among others, in the league. However, as a country, India has been unable to break the barrier so far.
When asked for a prediction on when India will have a main-stay player in the NBA, here is what Batish said.
“That’s a very difficult question to answer… We have to start to look at the whole package, as athletes are concerned. Not just how they are training in basketball, but in conditioning, nutrition, all those kind of things. And you have to make a start somewhere.
One of those programs that we have been looking at, is actually something called ‘Hoops Foundation’. Like a charitable organization that we want to set up, to try and encourage 5 to 10-year-olds to play basketball, and to do physical education. The whole idea is, you go to more deprived areas, if you’d like. You bring kids, you show them the value of nutrition, and those kind of things.
It’s about finding that diamond in the rough. Someone who has got that athleticism. And you can start early in terms of developing their skills and so on.”
Simply put, India is still a long way away from its NBA superstar. However, there is a clear path to make it happen now. And it is one that the Indian National Basketball League is making possible through all their investment in nurturing the young talent of India.
The hope is that their system yields the results the country keeps dreaming of together. And if this system is supported, it’s hard to see a future without an Indian athlete in the top tier of basketball.
