Indian dream becomes a nightmare

The NBL shemozzle unpacked, PLUS: An incomplete Weekend That Will Be, involving a Warriors team we're still trying to figure out

The most extraordinary New Zealand sports story of the week has to be the farce surrounding the National Basketball League and the suspension of the first-year Indian Panthers.

When the Panthers had to default their last match against the Canterbury Rams due to a lack of players it became obvious there was something seriously amiss.

That was quickly followed by explosive reports that players were not being paid, were being misled and in some cases were relying on foodbanks to eat.

Alex Robinson, an American import now with the Nelson Giants, told 1 News that his treatment from the Panthers was disrespectful.

“It was always ‘next week or the 10th or the 15th or the 20th’. It would be pushed back, or they say ‘we will give you 10 percent today’, or ‘what do you need to pay the electricity bill?’”

Another player, who wanted to remain anonymous, told 1 News that some imports were relying on food banks to get by and staff were not being paid either.

The NBL will be acutely aware that these stories tend to travel quickly around the basketball world and that they reflected poorly on New Zealand as a potential destination for professional players and coaches.

Subsequently, the Panthers were suspended from the 12-team league.

We should all have a real problem with the following statement, however:

Commission chair Tracey Garland said: “It is very disappointing for the Commission to be facing this situation especially given that following careful due diligence, the original concept was sustainable and so exciting for the League, the game and the fans, both here and in India.”

Wait? What?!

Nah, you don’t get to put “careful due diligence” in the same statement announcing a suspension when cursory due diligence would have ensured that a much-ballyhooed concept had guaranteed access to both players and funding, because, you know, in a professional sporting league, having both players and money is not a nice-to-have, it’s fundamental.

The warning signs were not subtle either. They were flashing in neon.

The first sign of imminent trouble came in March, when the text beneath a story headlined “Overseas commitments leave Indian Panthers sweating on South Asia stars” revealed a level or organisational chaos that wasn’t picked up on at the time. It was framed as a simple case of country over club availability, but if we stopped to think about it for a second, what kind of professional entity would ever be allowed to start a season with so much uncertainty over the fate of the bulk of their squad. In hindsight it makes no sense; in foresight it should not have either.

Player unavailability due to international commitments forced the Panthers to play their season opener against the Hawke’s Bay Hawks in Napier on March 12 without any of the 10 Indian players named in the squad.

The Indian Basketball Federation recently called for an extended national camp in preparation for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers, which has delayed the arrival of the Panthers’ Indian players…

“We’ve had a very short turnaround after our professional league in India, and India is trying to qualify for the Asia Cup, so the players had an extended camp,” Panthers chief executive Parveen Batish told RNZ… “We were delayed in terms of applying for their visas because we didn’t know who and when they were going to be able to come.”

So far, so ridiculous, but it was Batish’s final quote that took the cake.

“We’re ready to fly them. We just have to press the button for the visa application, and then it will be done. We’re hoping that will happen in the next 10 days.”

Hoping? In the next 10 days? It is worth remembering the competition had already started when he uttered that; they had already been thrashed once and he was “hoping” to start an administrative process sometime in the next 10 days.

The foundation coach walked soon after.

It was doomed to fail.

It’s also a smudge on the CV of Sky’s Justin Nelson, credited by many, including me three years ago, for reviving a moribund NBL. The addition of the Panthers was also referenced in another puff-piece on the Sky executive, this time on Radio New Zealand.

While many struggled to see the synergies of having an Indian team in the league, Nelson was describing it as a “game changer” involving “very clever business people.”

When the Panthers’ entry was confirmed, he said: “The addition of the Panthers is a strategic move to take this entertainment business into India and the wider Asian region where basketball is going through extraordinary growth.

“Bringing the Indian Panthers into our New Zealand leagues will also help develop partnership and Sky TV broadcast opportunities back into India and the Asian region. The opportunity for New Zealand government, education, tourism, agriculture, and many other industries to promote themselves to India via our Kiwi leagues and television coverage is significant.”

The entire business case for inviting the Panthers into the league appeared to be predicated on the fact that there are 1.4 billion people in India. It’s been a flat-out flop and while Nelson says he is not embarrassed, he did tell Sport Nation’s Scotty Stevenson that he was accountable.

Nelson is finishing up at Sky next month before taking a role with the Australian National Basketball League.

I’m not sure opening that league up to the Panthers will be at the top of his to-do list.