I have seen many athletes drop out, I was fortunate: Raspreet

NOIDA: She had seen a number of athletes back off because they could not shuffle between work and play. That was not to be for Raspreet Sidhu, a coach at a private school, a wife and the only woman basketball player to represent India in three Asian Games.
As she gears up for the Asian Games in Jakarta, where India is in the same group as North and South Korea, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan and Indonesia, Raspreet explained how support from the family and perseverance helped her ride through to the 5x5 format of the game. “It was in my genes. My father was an athlete and used to represent his college. It was through him that I got introduced to the game,” Raspreet told TOI.

Having started to play basketball when she was in Class VI, Raspreet had her eyes set on the Indian jersey a few years later. At 15, she was the youngest girl to participate in the 2004 FIBA Asia Championship for Junior Women.

A St Stephen’s alumnus and a DU gold medallist in physical studies, she never looked back since participating in the 2004 championship. Among the other firsts to her credit is being the youngest female to have represented India in all three formats of the game in FIBA Asia Championship 2007, when she participated in under-18, under-21 and senior women categories. She was 17 then.

Jaspreet agrees she is “blessed” and that it was easy for her to continue playing till she was in college. Things, however, turned a bit difficult when she started working. She worked as an assistant professor in Delhi University for a year and then joined Shiv Nadar School as sports head.

“I was lucky to have support from the university and the school. I have seen many good athletes drop out merely because they can’t devote time to the game after they start working,” she said.

But is India doing enough for its athletes? “We don’t have professionalism. How many women will be blessed enough to get the kind of support I got? Fellow players in other games such as badminton, hockey, get jobs in PSUs, railways and so on. But for basketball, how many of these are ready to provide jobs? We need more professional teams to take up the game and nurture it. An athlete should be able to play without thinking whether her future is bright or not,” she said.