P.S. Santosh is gearing up for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers in November. The 42-year-old from Hyderabad has been named as the coach of the Indian team and will be working along with the foreign coach Veselin Matić.
Santosh feels that it is a great honour to work with the national team and that too for such a prestigious tournament. “Well, being a certified instructor from the famed Ganon Baker Basketball Academy in the USA and also having attended a player development coaching programme from GBA Czhech Republic, I am aware of the demands and challenges of the modern day sport,” Santosh said in a chat
with
Sportstar .
Talking about the Indian team, Santosh said that with the national federation hiring foreign coaches, the sport is growing. He hopes that in another five years, the national teams should be a
force to reckon with because of the kind of exposure and training programmes that are being given.
The former national basketballer, who was also a gold medallist in the Junior nationals once, will be joining the Indian team at the Vidyanagar Campus (Bengaluru) soon. "Definitely, I feel proud to be the first from Telangana to be nominated for the senior national team. It is a huge moment for me and I am hopeful of playing my part in the team’s progress,” said Santosh, who also represented Services in the Nationals.
Santosh said his qualifications which include being an NIS coach, a FIBA Level-2 coach, certified member of the World Association of Basketball Coaches and having worked with coaches and scouts from the NBA, NCAA, and Europe Pro League should come handy.
“It is not that I am short on experience in coaching for I worked as a scouting team member of Indian women’s team at the 2019 FIBA Asian meet and also for the Telangana state team,” he said, thanking the Federation and the Telangana Basketball Association officials for all the support and encouragement.
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