Hello India,
I have received a BB-mail from an Indian user about the drop of India NT this season. I wish to make public the answers I have sent him and more details to whom wants to know more.
It appears that every time an intercontinental competition takes place, small countries like India knows a drop in the world ranking. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that intercontinental competitions confronts every team - best and worst - no matter their difference of level. The potential success of a small country relies on the draw. And in other words, in luck. In our case, this season was more difficult than excepted. We had to face 3 monsters: Iran, Australia and New Zealand. These 3 teams have a common aspect: they can line up a starting five stronger than ours. They all have 5 players over $100k salary. While we list only 3 players. Basket ball is collective sport, even the Miami Heat and their "3 amigos" can't do nothing without backups =P.
About the game against Pakistan, with some stand back, I have realized that we lack something that others have. Monster players.
Pakistan have Arif Salim
(8734309) and Mojtaba Jamnejad
(9737706). Australia have Rudolph Radford
(5888983) and Jackson Mansfield
(8157988). Singapore have Fang Shuangxiang
(7658767) and Yip Kum Jian
(6610195). Iran relies on Hormoz Kavousi
(7652290) and Sepehr Asghari
(4861114). And about New Zealand, they benefit from the injury of C. Gopal Reddy. Otherwise, we could have won against them.
I learnt two things this season. First, to be efficient, an international player needs at least a "strong" game shape, and moreover to create surprises, we need at least our best players to be proficient. Secondly, the U21 general manager is more important than the senior general manager. He is the future of one nation.
As BBall Champ said, all I can do right now is prepare the future, and especially next season. Because in the consolation tournament, we are going to benefit of the home court advantage, and I hope, the progress of our current players.
Of course, I have made mistakes. I should have played at the same level of effort against Pakistan. But still, who could have stopped their two big stars? And if I have played at the same level of effort against Pakistan, could we have compete against New Zealand? So if you want to see India progress, train Indians ;-).
I will always be at your disposal for any infos guys. I'll be always open to discuss, even if you wish to tell me bad things, I don't care. I prefer exchanging than nothing at all.
See you soon!