Indian Basketball team (mens) in 18th Super Kung Sheung Tournament

Kung reminds me of Kung Pow. Anyone play True Crime: Streets of LA? In that game when the protagonist took an enemy down, he’d shout “Kung Pow!” when using a finishing move combo, for reasons best known to himself and much mocked in gaming forums. Dissecting his motives behind the war cry, Kung pao is a type of chicken delicacy, and there was a action movie Kung Paw: Enter the Fist, a spoof on martial arts movies. I’m guessing he watched that movie while stuffing down the chicken dish, thus giving birth to the war cry.

Kung Pow!

Coming to the point, the Indian basketball team (mens) is participating in the 18th Super Kung Sheung Cup, their first match is vs Hong Kong on 14 Dec. Last year’s Super Kung cup was not played to make room for the schedule of Asian games. In 2008, the Indian team played the following matches en route to 4th place.

India 81 – 87 Southern California Fukienese AssociationIndia 91 – 66 ThailandIndia 56 – 88 Hong KongIndia 68 – 87 Southern California Fukienese Association 87

Hong Kong won that tournament. This time, they are the first team we face. In addition to the teams mentioned above, the other three teams participating are Xin Cheng Holdings (XCH), GCC Group and Philippines.

Of the Indian team that participated in that tournament, three of those players are included in this squad as well. Namely, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Sunil Kumar Rathee and Jairam Jat.

The full list of the Indian team, as seen on BFI website is as follows:

1) Dinesh Coimbatore Venugopal2) Dishant Vipul Shah3) Prakash Mishra4) Kiranpal Singh5) Vishesh Bhriguvanshi6) Sunil Kumar Rathee7) Bobby Singh8 ) Jairam Jat9) Yadivinder Singh10) Ajay Pratap Singh

Here is the team list as seen on Hong Kong’s basketball website:

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Indian team roster, as seen on HK website

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There are some discrepancies in the two lists. Eudrick Pereira, Hareesh Koroth, Jagdeep Singh and Trideep Rai aren’t mentioned in the 10 men roster put out by the BFI, but they are mentioned on the Hong Kong website in their 14 men list. It’s safe to assume that these four may be the reserves behind the 10 men team mentioned by BFI.

Besides Ajay Pratap Singh and Bobby Singh, 15 and 16 years old respectively, you can check out a trading card sort of profile on the rest of the Indian team here:

https://www.sportskeeda.com/2010/11/04/indian-mens-basketball-team-for-asian-games-a-brief-glance/

About those two, Ajay Pratap Singh is from Chattisgarh, he once scored 16 points to go with 15 rebounds for Chattisgarh vs Jharkhand, but his team lost. Bobby Singh is from Uttar Pradesh and has represented India in junior level matches.

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The above pic came from: http://www.basketball.org.hk/10sksc/index.htm

The website is in Chinese, which I successfully navigated. And so can you, just hover the mouse over a link and in the progress bar below you can see where it leads to in English.

Far flung conspiracy theory: On that link, one can see every team’s roster except that of Hong Kong. Click on their team, and it shows a 404 error. Perhaps a subtle strategic move to prevent other teams from scouting their players?

Fun fact: The SCFA team has a celebrity. Remember the guy who beat Devin Harris in 1 on 1? Or the guy who beat Kobe in pop shot? Well, another dude beat LeBron James in HORSE (game of shooting in turns from fixed spots on the court, some call it snake/rounders). That guy is on the SCFA team, David Kalb. Check out the video: David Kalb vs LeBron