Sri Lanka’s under-18 Basketball team returned home after setting a Sri Lanka record as they beat Bangladesh by 126 – 36 after six years, with a margin of 90 points for the first time in history, yet failing to qualify for the under-18 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Championship in Qatar after defeating to India by 90 – 63.
Sri Lankan lion cubs defeated Bangladesh with a record to step closer for the top spot challenging reigning champions India, but unsuccessful in converting their focus, skills, courage and determination to a win.
Sri Lanka’s under-18 Basketball team toured to India to participate the South Asian Basketball Championship on July 3 which is the qualifying tournament for the 23rd under-18 FIBA Asia Championship. Four teams were selected to compete in the tournament and the teams competed were India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, when Bhutan withdrew the team from participating in the tournament.
However Sri Lanka u-18 basketball team coach, Mr. Panduka Ranasinghe had another story to tell. He said that this is the turning point of Basketball in Sri Lanka and the team deserved to win the tournament as the team was focused, skilled and determined than rest of the teams in the tournament and he still believes that the team has the potential to beat any team in Asia with more practice.
Speaking to thepapare.com he was highly critical on the officials of the tournament for making bad foul-calls during the match against India, what must have cost Sri Lanka team the win.
“Referees made some really bad foul-calls; even Indian media reported the same. Indian (Basketball) federation officials congratulated the boys and told them that they deserved the win but referees had a part to play as well.” Mr. Ranasinghe said.
He said that the tournament officials informed them before the beginning of the tournament to bring a local referee but the referee refused to be a part of the tour for his personal reasons. He added more saying that the referees for the match were supposed to be one Sri Lankan, one Indian and one Bangladeshi yet it was two Indians and one Bangladeshi.
He went on praising the young basketeers for the focus and determination shown prior and during the tournament to get qualified for the Asia’s main event. He said that the boys proved some of the local ex-managers and coaches wrong when they told him and the boys that they will not be able to defeat Bangladesh.
“Boys will play in the national team maybe in another three years and if they have the same focus and determination, they will sure to beat Japan, Korea and other elite teams, thus, dominate Asia.” Mr. Ranasignhe said.
He told thepapare.com that the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation should start scouting for new players for U-18 team without delay after considering recent performance of the current U-18 team.
The team along with the coach praised the federation for the immense support and they hope that the representative of the federation will return to Sri Lanka with a positive response. According to the U-18 head coach, a representative was sent to appeal to FIBA Asia Secretary, on behalf of the team, to participate the FIBA Asia tournament considering their performance at the qualifying tournament.
He insisted that the federation with the support of an expert should design a four year framework to guide players and coaches for the development of the sport and importantly, to insist coaches to work on the fundamentals to groom players.
Team agreed to the comment made by their head coach to introduce tall foreign players to club level in Sri Lanka and allow the youngsters and senior players to work around them to gain more experience.
U-18 team captain Praveen Ganlath from Asian International School (AIS) was satisfied with the performance of the team when thepapare.com asked him about the team but he said that team including him hoped to win and to qualify for FIBA Asia Tournament.
“Many who attended the game said that India won the match but we won their hearts. They said we were the true winners. We had the opportunity to claim the tournament but unfortunately we missed the chance.” Praveen said.
Speaking about the Bangladesh match experience, Praveen said that the coach set a target and asked them to win the game with a margin of 40 points, thus, the team successfully completed the task with a margin of 90 points.
He said that the Indian players were taller than they anticipated and their average height was six foot and four inches when the Sri Lankan boys were five foot eight inches.
Nichula Liyanage from Gateway College said that the every player in the team was not intimated after seeing the Indians and Bangladeshis as they were mentally and physically prepared to compete against these giants.
He said that the referees failed to call fouls committed by the Indian players even though Sri Lankan players were bleeding. He added that the coach and the bench along with other officials were furious at the referees for not considering such fouls committed by the Indian players. He criticized the referees for targeting specific Sri Lankan players during the game and calling fouls on them which demoralized the team.
“Our vice-captain, Juliyan Gunasinghe (from Royal College) got involved in a physical encounter with the Indian captain and sent off by the referee. It was a disadvantage for us since we were playing around him. We were in the lead when he was scoring freely against India.” Nichila said.
Dimitri Grebe from AIS told that that half of the team was fouled out at the beginning of the third quarter of the game by the referees.
He said that the Sri Lankan players matched their strengths to the height of opponents. Further added that the score-line of the game does not reflect the exact scenario occurred during the game.
“If we can get more experience with foreign players. We need to learn with experience. We should be able to block tall players to get experience and also need to learn how to work around them.” said Dimitri.
He said that height doesn’t matter as long as they have the heart for the game and confident that they will have upper hand if they meet Indians again.
Results :
Sri Lanka 126 (Praveen Ganlath 35 points, Mohamed Naleer Umair 19, Nichula Liyanage 19) beat Bangladesh (Hasan Mohd 16). Half Time score 68:15
India 90 (Mahipal Singh 32, K. Sunil 19, Anmol Singh 15, Guruvinder Gill 14) beat Sri Lanka 63 (Mohamed Naleer Umair 16, Juliyan Gunasinghe 11)
Statistics – the Hindu newspaper, Deccan Herald newspaper
