The four day long Basketball Assessment and trials commenced at the SAI, National Centre of Excellence(NCoE), Ahmedabad on Wednesday, these are being conducted in both the Boys and Girls categories for the 14- 21 years age group.

The Assessment and trials started off today morning at 9 am, with the players from various parts of the country reaching the Centre, getting themselves registered and then getting their height and weight checked prior to commencement of the trials.

The Open trials are overseen by Chief Coach Tirthesh Guha and Coach Kuldeep Singh, both from SAI, NCoE, Naranpura, Ahmedabad.

The assessment trials are being conducted by Talent Identification and Development committee(TIDC) composed of Coach Kalva Rajeshavar Rao, Coach Aman Sharma, Coach Ram Kumar and Assistant Coach Rohit Kumar.

Speaking to SAI Media, head of the selection panel, Former high Performance Director Aman Sharma said "we are conducting trials for two purposes, one is the assessment camp for induction into the Khelo India programme, we have around 27 vacancies, we have a sanctioned strength of 90 in Basketball with 63 athletes training here. We selected 38 probables from the '76th Junior Nationals That took place in Puducherry recently, all have been invited here, they will undergo an assessment protocol, and the selected players will be inducted into Khelo India. We have another list of 84 probables which also includes the Khelo India players, in all we have invited 84 athletes- boys and girls who will undergo trials during the next four days, and we will try and fill up the sanctioned strength of the NCoE."

Sharma praised Government's plans of setting up Talent Identification Committees on a zonal basis to develop world class talent "those who are going to represent India at the 2036 Olympics have to be a part of the system right now, they have to come to trials, train under qualified coaches, receive necessary state support, we have to identify them and develop them and the government has identified this issue and is working on Zonal TIDC's(talent Identification committees) which will be a positive development."

(रिलीज़ आईडी: 2285064) आगंतुक पटल : 14