Veselin Matic: Having naturalised players will help Indian team develop

The 61-year-old, with more than three decades of coaching experience, lamented the absence of a naturalised player in the Indian team when other countries have the provision to include them in their teams.

India basketball coach Veselin Matic during an interview in Chennai on Sunday.

Serbia’s Veselin Matic will soon complete three years as the head coach of the Indian men’s basketball team.

The 61-year-old, with more than three decades of coaching experience, lamented the absence of a naturalised player in the Indian team when other countries have the provision to include them in their teams.

"In every national team, there is a naturalised player. Only the Chinese and Indian Governments' rules state that one cannot include nationalised players. That’s the only way to develop our players. And every team has a good foreign player in a position. All of them have American or other players, who play high quality. We don’t have one," he said on Sunday.

READ |

The Serbian is of the firm opinion that it will take another three years to make the men’s team a force to reckon with in Asia. “It will take time till 2025 to do that. After 2025, everything is possible; a top-eight finish in Asia, or even a top-six or top-four. We cannot compare ourselves now with Australia, China, Korea and the Philippines. But we can try and beat Iran, Kazakhstan which is a tough team, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. We have to play catch-up,” he said.

Matic’s first assignment with the National team was the Window-II of the FIBA World Cup Asia Qualifiers in Manila in a bio-bubble in February this year. India lost to New Zealand twice and the Philippines while Korea backed out due to COVID-19. The third window is likely to be in June with New Zealand, the Philippines and India in the fray. “It is tough. But we hope to do well,” he said.

Matic said the much-talked-about National League might start after November in a packed season. “We have a tight schedule with the Senior Nationals and then we start the training camp. We then have the Window-III World Cup Asia Cup Qualifiers. Then there is Asia men’s Cup which is the Asian Games qualifier, National 3x3 League, and the Asian Games where the Indian women’s team has already qualified,” he said.