Indian Men’s Basketball Team Win Silver In Dhaka

India's men National basketball team silver winning performance in the ongoing South Asian games at Dhaka, Bangladesh, says Basketball Federation of India (BFI) was praiseworthy.

According to BFI secretary general, Harish Sharma, the overall result at Dhaka, was good beginning for Indian cagers .

"The silver wining efforts is a significant step towards a tough schedule ahead," he said.

This year, BFI is conducting first FIBA Commonwealth Basketball Championships for men, on the home soil in August. The meet is schedule to held at Bangalore. The Commonwealth tourney will be followed by Asian Games in November, in China. BFI is expecting good results in both the above competitions.

"Our main focus this year is both Bangalore and Guangzhou competitions . The National team should be able to give a good account of themselves in August and November," said Harish.

In the build up months for Bangalore meet, the National team is also expected to play in the 21st FIBA Asia Champions Cup at Doha beginning May 22.

"It will be good exposure trip," added Harish.

Regarding Dhaka trip, India's assistant coach Mohit Bhandari, is of the opinion that India-Afghanistan final match, that former lost by a mere one-point, was good learning experience for the national squad.
"Our players gave too much liberty to the opponents in early stage of the final match. It proved costly," he said.

India began its campaign for the title on a winning note by defeating Sri Lanka 106-54, and outplayed Pakistan 106-48, in its next encounter. But in the third match of the tournament, faced stiff resistance from Afghanistan cagers, who had training stint in USA for the tournament. India lost to Afghanistan by three points 74-77, in the extra time. Both the teams were locked 65 each in the regular period.

In the semifinal, India didn’t sweat to score 96-54 win over hosts Bangladesh.

In the final, against Afghanistan, Indian players paid the price of being too casual in the initial stages of the crucial match. Indian cagers were trailing by nine points lead at the break (35-44).

In the third quarter, Indian team though came back in the contest to narrow down the lead to four points (50-54), it failed to grab the ball in the dying seconds, and lost the match by mere one point (64-65), and had to settle for the silver.

The BFI has also announced cash incentives for the national team.