New age for Indian basketball: Zoran Visic

Bengaluru: The Basketball Federation of India unveiled the new coach of senior women’s national team — the vastly experienced Zoran Visic of Serbia — who took over ahead of the Fiba Women’s Asia Cup, being hosted in Bengaluru from July 23 to 29.

Speaking here on Friday, the coach who has previously worked with a number of women’s teams in Serbia, Russia and Romania, including being head coach of the Serbian junior national women’s team, said that side ranked 40th in the world showed promise.

“First of all, the team has good fundamentals. It was easy to transition to my philosophy ahead of this tournament. Our target is to be a good competitive team and be on the same level as other top teams. Hopefully, this could be a new age for Indian basketball,” the 60-year-old said.

The Women’s Asia Cup serves as a qualifying tournament for next year’s World Cup in Spain.

The tournament is split between Divisions A and B, with Australia and New Zealand plying their trade in the competition for the first time in the former division.

India have been drawn alongside Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan in Division ‘B’, and could go on to the face Singapore, Fiji and the much feted Lebanon and Kazakhstan.

Coach Visic believes the latter teams will prove a tough test.

The four semi-finalists from Division A will qualify for the World Cup next year.

Meanwhile, India travel to Chinese Taipei in early July to face the likes of Japan and China in a litmus test before the big competition at home.

“It will be a good test, no doubt. We’re not looking to win, but seeking to gather experience from Chinese Tapei,” Visic said.