Nagpur News: Mugdha Amraotkar of Dharampeth Krida Mandal (DKM) brought laurels to the Orange City by becoming the second International player in basketball from Nagpur.
The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) announced the 12-member national squad at the SAI Training Centre in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, on Friday.
Mugdha has been named in the Indian squad for the 3rd Fiba Asia U-16 Basketball Championship slated to be played at Colombo, Sri Lanka, from November 23 to 30.
A student of Shivaji Science College, Mugdha is the only Maharashtra cager to be named in the national squad that will undergo a training-cum-preparation camp from Nov 13 to 21 in Dongguan, China, where India will compete against Chinese clubs ahead of their first biggest test against the top Asian teams in Colombo.
In the history of Nagpur’s basketball, Manjiri Mandpe is the only other international hoopster who represented India in the Asian championship way back in 1990. After a 13-year gap, Mugdha made it to the Indian squad for the international tourney.
An excellent player at the post Mugdha is also a fine forward and by breaking in to the national squad she became the first hoopster from DKM to don the national colours. She is being imparted coaching by Amit Sampat and Dheeraj Kadao at the Shankar Nagar-based courts of DKM. She was also helped by India coach Shiba Maggon.
The lanky 5-foot-11 guard Mugdha is the daughter of Sunil and Varsha Amraotkar.
After a fine performance in the Youth National Basketball Championship held at West Bengal Mugdha was picked by the BFI as a probable player for the first preparatory camp be held at STC Aurangabad from August 19 to September 14. Thereafter, she was shortlisted in the list top 16 probable players for the second preparatory camp which started at the SAI centre in Gujarat from November 1.
For her achievement, president of Nagpur District Basketball Association (NDBA) and DKM Sandeep Joshi, treasurer of Maharashtra State Basketball Association Anup Rajurkar, secretary DKM Ravindra Kulkarni and all members of DKM congratulated Mugdha and wished her success.
Earlier, Mugdha has represented Maharashtra in the youth nationals twice and her excellent performance in the U-17 National Championship at Kolkata gave her a place in the Indian squad.
Apart from Mugdha three other Maharashtra girls were included in the probable list but they failed to break into the national team.
In addition, DKM player Anushree Kaloti too was included as India probable player for the World Schools Basketball Championship. She was, however, forced to skip the event due to the clash of dates of her SSC examination and the international event.
