By Gaurav Sharma
New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) India's basketball player Amjyot Gill says lack of team was responsible for the disappointing performance at the 21st Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
India played three match in the preliminary round and lost all of them.
"Our team chemistry was poor at that time because I came from United States, Amritpal was also playing somewhere else so we got no time to practice together and then suddenly Amrit got injured so we lacked chemistry at that time," Amrit told IANS at the launch of the 3x3 Pro Basketball League in Mumbai.
"I am not satisfied with the performance. If we have practiced together we could have done something better," he added.
Despite the poor performance of the team, The 26-year-old power forward scored 59 points but lack of support from experienced players like centre Satnam Singh and others costed hugely. While Amritpal missed all the three matches due to injury, Satnam only managed to gather 31 points in all the matches.
When asked about the performance of Satnam, who became the first player from the country to be drafted into the NBA, Amrit said: "Satnam is a very good player but sometimes players click sometimes don't but he tried his 100 percent on the court."
On Wednesday, the first ever FIBA recognised league in the shorter form of the game in India, the 3x3 Pro Basketball League (3BL), was launched. The league will witness 12 teams with foreign players like Bikramjeet Gill, Inderbir Singh Gill and Leandro Lima, among others.
The 10-minute high speed format, which became an Olympic sport last year, will be also introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
When asked about the importance of this three-a-side league, Amjyot said: This format can help a lot because in this format the individual skills get developed and its purely a team game so it can help a lot. This is a good opportunity for young players to showcase their skills and talent."
Amjyot asserted that players will not suffer any adverse affect on their technique while switching from the shorter to the regular format.
"No, I think the individual skills will develop and it (3x3 format)will help a lot in the regular format. It will also be easy for the players to play the 5x5 format as this (3x3) is very fast paced as compared to the regular format. So if you play 3x3 it will get you results in regular format (5x5)," the Chandigarh-born player said.
Amjyot also stressed on the need to improve the system at the grassroots level in order to develop the sport in the country.
"There has to be a proper system and it should start from the school level like in foreign countries. I think right now India lacked a proper system in grassroot level," he said.
(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.sharma@ians.in)
