Sanjay, the tallest player in the team, is getting serious about the drums, and his rock band in Imphal are debating whether to call themselves ‘On the Verge’ or ‘Trojan Horse’. But a bigger worry bothers Manipur’s under-16 basketball coach T Nilamani Singh — how to keep his players hooked to the sport beyond the Youth National Basketball championships.

Sub-junior champions (u-13) two seasons ago, Manipur, like their north-eastern counterparts Mizoram, routinely hit a speed-bump as height becomes a factor in the senior ranks. “We can’t battle our genes. We do well in the younger age-groups, but because we don’t get tall players, we don’t have a future in seniors in this tall man’s game. The life of a basketball player in Manipur is only upto the junior level,” rues Nilamani, a former state player, now NIS coach, who found himself equally helpless in tackling this scenario as a player.

As Sanjay — a “freakish” six-foot-one — guards the post, giving the team some semblance of equality against players from Punjab and Kerala, some of who are already in the six-foot-three region, Manipuris wonder if there will ever be a level playing field in basketball. The last Manipuri to get into any national team in basketball was back in 1981. “We have the skills, but we fall short on vertical advantage. I keep telling the players that basketball isn’t only a tall man’s game, and with the speed and athleticism that we have, there’s no reason we can’t produce a good playmaker,” Nilamani says.

... contd.