Twelve adroit basketers. One national dream

495

The national basketball team will take wing to India for the South Asian Basketball Championships which will be qualifying tournament for the Asian Basketball Championships to be held in China later during the year. A quick look at the team before the voyage. 

After two weeks of selection trails twelve adept basketers were selected out of the national pool to represent the island nation. The time factor was not on our side and the team practiced only for four days before leaving the country. Yet the man-in-charge of the brigade Panduka Ranasinghe speaking to the ThePapare.com prior to the tour said that he had a definite plan for the four days and that he is sure that they will give it all to bring back glory to the country.

Sri Lanka will match up against the South-Asian giants India and Bangladesh. The point that makes this a tough competition is that only the winning team will qualify for the Asian Championships. India has always been a challenge for us Lankans. But this time the story could be very different.

Former national skipper Chamath Dhanwamsa and Roshan Randima will strengthen the side with experience and will hold the bunch together at tough times. Sri Lanka having the advantage of some of the preeminent offensive players in the fraternity are well equipped with pace and the talent to swish the nets for points.

Clinton Thevakumar,Timothy Nithushan and Prageeth Pushpakumara who had an outstanding run in the Mercantile Knockout Championships will fill up the rest of the slots in the team card. The ability that Timothy possess to handle pressure at any given time is one of the key features of him as he will swiftly change the fate of the game. Clinton Thevakumar of course has very deft reflexes and is a player who will cut through the defense which will come handy in drawing fouls.

Sudesh Ahamed, Tushan Dharamsena and Gayan De Croos will be in charge of etching the rebounds both offensively and defensively which will be a key factor in crossing the white line regularly. Praneeth Udumalagala, Sameera Senarath, Isuru Perera, Roshan Fernando will fill up the team. Faizel Deva will join the touring squad as the Manager of the team.

Head Coach of the team Mr. Panduka Ranasinghe sharing his thoughts said “We pre-eminently focused about the mental strength of the players. It is more important to have a good mind set which will have nothing but the thought that we will win the championship, because with my experience I know that a player`s psychology can do wonders. After that we tuned up the shooting factor of the team and the rebounding factor together with defense. We might have a world class offence but if we don`t have a good defense and good rebounding then we will lose the game. So out of 100%, 40 percent  focus will be on mentality, while the rest of the 60% are equally divided into defense, offense and rebounding”.

If Sri Lanka does qualify for the Asian Championships we will join Group C in the Asian Championships together with Iran. The records of the history does not favor the winning factor but with the revamp of the federation and the officials even the players do look promising for a victory. With a glimpse of hopes to happen.

Good Luck to the boys!!