Wheelchair team set for international sojourn

Mumbai: The Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India is set to send its team for an international tournament for the first time, following a protracted struggle to procure funds to ensure participation.

This newspaper had reported in November, that the WBFI was looking for financial help to send their team to Bangkok for the U-23 Asian qualifiers.

Now, WBFI president Madhavi Latha confirmed exclusively to this paper that the federation has been able to source funds to send its team for the tournament.

“It was a very big challenge for us. Getting these funds was not easy,” said Madhavi. “We struggled a lot. We raised some amount through crowdfunding, and then we also tried through our contacts.

“We are sending a team (outside India) for the first time since we started this federation,” she said.

The India U-23 side, currently training at the Sathyabama University in Chennai, is set to leave for Bangkok later this month. India are set to kick off the six-nation tournament against Australia on Jan 29.

The Indians will run into experienced opponents like Iran, Thailand, Japan, and China at the Asian meet.

However, procuring the funds is not the end of WBFI’s problems. The federation is now awaiting clearance from the airline to carry a large number of wheelchairs to Bangkok.

“We could not purchase the tickets immediately, because we are waiting for approval to carry so many wheelchairs,” said Madhavi. “Because of this delay, the rate may go up again.

“We have so many wheelchairs. We need to take both the sports wheelchairs and the other wheelchairs as well, which will be for regular use.”

The Indian Paralympians procured double the amount (four) of medals than the Olympics athletes in Rio last year.

However, the para-team sports still does not have proper representation in international tournaments.

“In Paralympics, there is no representation in team games from India. It is only in individual games, like athletics or swimming,” Madhavi had said.