Indian Senior Men’s Basketball team set to return to the William Jones Cup

  KEY HIGHLIGHTS · The 38th William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament will be held at the Hsinchuang Gymnasium in the city of New Taipei, Taiwan from 23 to 31 July. · Being a prestigious invitational tournament, the Indian men’s basketball team will be participating for the first time since 2005. · Including India, there are 9 participating teams. · The Tournament will feature an interesting mix of national teams, club teams and an American University team. · The matches will be played in a round robin league format, with each team playing 8 matches. The team with the best record will be crowned champions. · So this is the chance for the Indian team to gain valuable exposure ahead of the FIBA Asia Challenge to be held in Iran later this September. · The Indian lineup remains largely unchanged from the SABA Qualifiers, except for the return of star forward Amjyot Singh Gill and the inclusion of Tamil Nadu’s Prasanna Venkatesh. New Delhi/ Bengaluru, 21st July 2016: The Indian Senior Men’s National Team is all set to represent the country at the 38th William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament 2016. The tournament will be held in New Taipei City, Taiwan (Republic of China) from the 23rd to 31st July. Continuing from where they left off from their unbeaten run at the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Zone Qualifying Round earlier this month, the team will yet be coached by Mr CV Sunny and Mr Sebastian PJ. The side will be captained by centre Amritpal Singh. While the Indian team remains largely unchanged from the winning combination at the SABA Qualifiers, there are two key additions to the side this time around. The biggest addition will see the return of dynamic power forward Amjyot Singh Gill, after his successful professional stint alongside Amritpal Singh in Japan’s National Basketball Developmental League with the Tokyo Excellence team. A versatile stretch four, Amjyot was one of the top performers at last year’s FIBA Asia Championship finishing among the top 5 in scorers (20 ppg), and among the top ten in rebounds (8.3 rpg), blocks (1.1 bpg), efficiency (+17.1), and freethrow percentage (73.1 FT%). The second will be the inclusion of Tamil Nadu’s Prasanna Venkatesh. They will replace the unavailable Arjun Singh (ONGC / Uttarakhand) and Yadwinder Singh (ONGC / Uttarakhand). “Being a prestigious tournament, the Indian men’s team got an invitation from the Taipei Basketball Association. This will be excellent exposure for all our players who can correct themselves keeping in mind the upcoming FIBA Asia Challenge,” said Mr K Govindaraj, President of Basketball Federation of India (BFI) during the kit distribution ceremony at the Kanteerava Stadium Complex in Bengaluru earlier this afternoon Also present at the ceremony to convey his best wishes to the departing contingent was newly appointed Superintendent of Police & Director, Youth Empowerment & Sports Department, Bengaluru, Mr Anupam Agarwal. “It is going to be a great opportunity for us to prepare for the upcoming FIBA Asia Challenge. In all our positions, we have excellent depth and our chances are bright, so we can definitely put up a good fight against all the teams,” said Coach Mr CV Sunny. The William Jones Cup is one of the, if not the, biggest non-FIBA Asia tournament conducted in the Asian continent as it is regularly used for the top teams in Asia as a warm-up event for the regular FIBA Asia competitions. This marks the first time since 2005 that the Indian Men’s National Team was invited. The invitation comes after India made history in back to back years, in 2014 by beating China for the first time ever and in 2015 by reaching the quarterfinals for the first time in 12 years.

Selection Process

25 players for the Indian Senior Men's Team were selected based on their performance throughout the year, and especially how they performed at the 66th Senior National Basketball Championship for Men and Women, which was held at Mysore, Karnataka, from 9th to 16th January, 2016. The 30th Federation Cup for Men and Women held at Goa, from 9th to 14th March, 2016, was another tournament which determined the selections. The final 12 were selected based on their performance at the National Coaching Camp at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore, Karnataka from 10th to 22nd July, 2016.

Indian Squad for the 38th William Jones Cup 2016

Jersey No Family Name(s)

/Last Name

First Name(s) /Given Name Place of Birth (City and State) Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy) Height (cm)(ft & inches) Weight (Kg)

Position

4

Bhullar Arshpreet Singh Jalandhar Punjab 02/10/1996 190 (6’ 3’’) 86

G/F

9 Bhriguvanshi Vishesh Varanasi Uttar Pradesh   13/09/1991 195 (6’ 4.5’’) 95

G/F

10

  Amritpal Singh (c) Ganna Pind Punjab   05/01/1991 207 (6’ 9.5’’) 110

C

12

Philip Basil Sulthanbathery Kerala 10/01/1991 184 (6’ .5”) 76

G/F

15

Pethani Rikin Sajiavadar Amreli Gujarat   02/12/1990 203 (6’ 8”) 104

C

23 Annadurai Aravind Tanjore Tamil Nadu 05/07/1993 200 (6’ 7”) 95

C

25 Arumugam Arvind Mandya Karnataka   28/01/1991 197 (6’ 5.5”) 94

PF

27

Amjyot Singh Chandigarh Punjab/ Haryana 27/01/1992

203 (6’ 8”)

104 F 44 Bhardwaj Ravi Chandigarh Chandigarh   31/10/1992 207 (6’ 9.5”) 100 F/C 46 Sivakumar Prasanna Venkatesh Gobichettipalayam Tamil Nadu 25/09/1992 186 (6’ 1”)

85

G/F 66 Pari Akilan Chennai Tamil Nadu 20/07/1989 180 (5’ 10.8’’)

70

PG 77 Talwinderjit Singh Patiala Punjab   20/10/1986 182 (5’ 11.6’’)

80

PG

*PG - Point Guard / Feeder, G - Guard, F - Forward, G/F - Wing, PF - Power Forward, C - Centre, PF/C - Pivot

14) Coach: Sunny Cheruthottil Varghese 15) Physiotherapist: Navaneeth Atholi Thiruvoth 16) Manager: Chengalraya Naidu Talipinani

About the 38th William Jones Cup

Tournament Specifics

The venue for the tournament is the Hsinchuang Gymnasium in the city of New Taipei, Taiwan. 9 teams are set to participate, and this includes 2 local Taipei teams. Matches will be played between 23rd of July to the 31st. The final placement of teams will be based on their performance in a single round robin format. This will mean that every team will face every other team once.

Participants

The list of participating teams range from National teams to amateur club and University teams, as follows: 1.       Egypt National Team (WR-41) 2.       Iran National Team (WR-17) 3.       India National Team (WR-53) 4.       Japan National Team (WR-48) 5.       Korea National Team (WR-30) 6.       Philippines (Mighty Sports Club team in the Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League or ‘PCBL’) 7.       U.S.A (California State University, Sacramento)- NCAA Div I Team 8.       Republic of China (ROC) Team A (WR-48) 9.       Republic of China Team B

India’s Tournament Schedule [Timings in IST]

vs USA – 23rd July, 12:30 PM vs Japan – 24th July, 12:30 PM vs ROC A – 25th July, 4:30 PM vs Korea – 26th July, 12:30 PM vs Egypt – 27th July, 10:30 AM vs Phillipines – 28th July, 10:30 AM vs ROC B – 29th July, 10:30 AM vs Iran – 31st July, 10:30 AM

Tournament History and India’s Participation

The William Jones Cup is a prestigious annual invitational tournament, the inaugural edition of which was held in 1977. The Cup was conceived and named to honour Dr. Renato William Jones, who served as one of the founders of FIBA and served as its first Secretary General for 44 years. Dr. William Jones was also instrumental in the creation of an Asian Zone for FIBA, which he did at the FIBA World Congress in Tokyo in 1964. Iran is the defending champion, while United States is the most successful participant in the competition, with 15 gold medal finishes. The last time the Indian men’s team competed at William Jones was way back in 2005. Subsequently, the women’s team participated in 2011 and 2012. In the 2011 edition, India finished (1-3), and was placed 4th, with the team’s sole win coming against South Korea (63-69). This game was notable Prashanti Singh’s shooting heroics as well as for Anitha Pauldurai top scoring (24 points) and Geethu Anna Jose’s 11 rebounds. In the following 2012 edition, India finished 4th again but fared better, going 2-3, by beating the Malaysian National Team and the Division III Chapman University, US.

About Basketball Federation of India

The Basketball Federation of India or BFI is the governing and controlling body of basketball in India, and is responsible for the development and promotion of the sport at all levels. BFI has been involved in conducting camps, clinics, events, and training sessions at its academies for the development of basketball. BFI came into being in 1935 and took complete control over Indian basketball in 1950. Prior to that time, the Indian Olympic Association handled the conduct of Indian basketball championships. Since 1950, the BFI has been conducting various such championships, from the grassroots to senior team participation in international tournaments. In addition, the BFI has been responsible for the establishment of strong sub-junior and junior level programs. The BFI has to its credit produced several international players of repute, among them 17 have been bestowed with the honour of Arjuna Awards. Earlier in June 2015, 19-year-old Satnam Singh Bhamara made history by becoming the first Indian national to be drafted by an NBA team, when he was selected by the Dallas Mavericks. More information at www.basketballfederationindia.org.