Basketball’s first Arjuna who always spoke his mind

MUMBAI: Gulam Abbas Moontasir, former India basketball captain and Arjuna awardee, died here on Tuesday night after prolonged illness. He was 80.

An unmistakable presence on the famous Nagpada Basketball Association courts in the city from the time he picked up the sport as a young boy until a few years ago, Moontasir was an outspoken and flamboyant personality. His physical, aggressive style of basketball created quite a spark in his playing days.

Born in 1942 in Mumbai, Moontasir’s inclination towards basketball began after American missionaries introduced the game in Nagpada. He quickly progressed to make an impact with the Nagpada,

Railways and Maharashtra state teams.

His India debut came in an exhibition game against Australia in 1960. Moontasir would go on to captain the national team in the Asian Basketball Championship in

Bangkok in 1969 and 1975. He was part of the Indian side at the 1970 Asian Games which finished sixth after topping the group that also had China, Thailand and Malaysia.

The same year, Moontasir was selected in the Asian Allstar

team and received the Arjuna Award, the first basketball player to bag the honour.

His firebrand style on the court also reflected off it. Moontasir was suspended for three years due to frequent run-ins with referees and officials in the country. Even after his playing days, he continued to remain outspoken. Fiercely passionate about the game, he was regularly seen at matches across the city.

“We would meet quite often on the courts and he would talk just basketball. He was a regular at matches and practice sessions till a year or so before the pandemic, before his health issues stopped him from stepping out frequently,” Nizar Ahmed Koya, coach of the state women’s basketball team who has also been the head coach at Bombay Scottish for more than two decades, said.

“His best quality was that he spoke his mind always; being outspoken is my biggest learning from him. He would speak with great fondness of his ‘jasba (passion)’ during his playing days and was sad that kids these days did not quite show that.”

Moontasir himself didn’t go too deep into the coaching world; he wrote a book on basketball and featured in a couple of Hindi movies. He was also among the country’s sports icons who featured in the 1987 ‘Freedom Run’ film shot to promote national integration.

“His impact went much beyond Mumbai and Maharashtra basketball, it was nationwide,” Nizar said. “He was a prominent figure in Nagpada being the basketball nerve of the city.”