Come June 22, the fledgling State of Telangana will witness what will surely be a first-of-its-kind initiative here when a national-level Wheelchair Basketball Technical Camp will be organised with four coaches from abroad training persons with disabilities (PWD) in the novel sport.
The event is organised by the Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India (WBFI) with the Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Cognizant as partners, at the Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy Stadium in Yousufguda here, said Madhavi Latha, WBFI President and its Secretary-General Kalyani Rajaraman.
When contacted Ms. Madhavi Latha, herself a National Paralympic Swimming Champion in 2011, said that India was the first country selected by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) to implement the project and that it was a matter of pride for Telangana to be hosting the event here.
“We believe that we will be able to introduce para-sports to people here, providing an active platform to the PWDs to showcase their latent potential and going a step closer to achieving social inclusion, apart from boosting their confidence levels,” she said.
A highlight of this camp Ms. Madhavi Latha said was that it would be the first-ever international wheelchair basketball match in the country between India and Thailand teams, between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on June 26 (Sunday). The technical camp was in partnership with two global disability sports organisations including the IWBF and International Paralympic Committee’s AGITOS Foundation, a leading organisation that promotes sports for the PWDs.
An organisation founded in 2011, the WBFI actively advocates and supports players’ grassroots organization and coordinates with governments and other stakeholders to develop a string contingent of wheelchair basketball players across States. “In less than 2 years, we have been able to develop 9 State level teams including 2 all-women teams,” said Ms. Madhavi.
