Basketball looks for turnaround
New Delhi, Oct. 3: The NBA sets foot in India for the first time this week as basketball struggles in a country where cricketers are treated like gods and the ancient sport of kabaddi is a hot television property.
Stars from the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers will play pre-season games in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday to boost a desperate campaign to improve the sport’s popularity in South Asia.
So far the efforts have gained little traction, even though US President Donald Trump talked up the event at a rally with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Texas last week.
“Very soon India will have access to another world-class American product — NBA basketball. Wow!” Trump said.
A professional league called the United Basketball Alliance (UBA) started in 2015, but ended abruptly two years later.
The NBA set up an academy in New Delhi for 21 players in 2017, one of seven across the globe. It now has 23 students as part of the expansion that brings the Kings and the Pacers to India.
They will also be playing in China, where the sports has a huge following, and Japan.
But in India which has a population of 1.3 billion, there are just 4,000 players registered for official tournaments. That is three times more than a decade ago, according to the national federation.
No Indian player has ever taken part in an NBA game and former players and experts believe it could be a long before any breakthrough is made.