India Has Talent In Basketball But Lacks Structure Veselin Matic

New Delhi: Basketball coach Veselin Matić was long involved with the Indian team as a coach from 2019 to 2024 and now visits the country as a FIBA instructor. He believes there is a lot of potential in India at the youth level, but the absence of a structure and lack of competitive exposure are some of the hurdles players face in making the transition.

The Serbian, who also coached the Iranian team that won the Asian Games bronze medal in 2010, was recently in the Capital for a coaches’ programme supported by FIBA and the International School Sports Organisation (ISSO).

“It’s a programme to develop basketball in schools here. In some countries basketball is developed through clubs and in other nations the sport is developed through a school system. In India, we have a club system. But the school system and university system are also needed for the game to grow. I came up with the idea to make one course and then bring the coaches working in schools to a FIBA Level 1 course. We need to train more and more school teachers as coaches. That will help the game grow in schools,” says Matic.

The FIBA instructor and former head coach of the Indian national team feels India needs a strong structure to help players transition into elite athletes.

“During my coaching years in India, from 2019 to 2023, I watched a lot of youth games here. It is really good to see a lot of people coming to these games, a lot of friends coming. I was really impressed. This is at the under-14 and under-15 levels, and India has potential there. But the problem comes after that. These talents cannot continue in a club because there are not too many clubs — especially in big cities in India, there are not too many clubs. And the clubs don’t have a structure. Maybe they will have one coach who will bring the team and play. Why not bring the same things to institutions that have better facilities? Like in schools, where the facilities are much better,” he said.

Another issue Matic points out is the lack of competition for the national team.

“India competes with the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. And then once in a while they get some strong international teams in the under-16 or under-18 age groups.”

Talents should be picked based on the right parameters, he says.

“If you are going with the notion of looking for players who are tall, who are fast, then you will end up selecting such players. We are selecting more like this, rather than selecting players based on their game. Everybody will take a strong, fast player.”

The Indian men’s team recently gave a strong performance at the 2026 FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup in Singapore. India beat higher ranked teams like Bahrain and Kazakhstan in the qualifying round but eventually bowed out losing to New Zealand and Qatar in its pool matches.

“I think Scott Flemming (coach) did some very good things after I left. He stabilised the team. But what I know from the other side is that they didn’t practise too much. They didn’t have exposure, not enough competition. Domestic tournaments and then national camps. That’s not enough.”