Rio 2016: Indian official nominated to represent FIBA at Rio Olympics' basketball event

New Delhi: A senior basketball official from India, Naresh Aneja, has been nominated as one of eight jury members to represent The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) at next month’s Rio Olympics.

The jury pool consists of two members from both FIBA and Europe, one each from Asia, Oceania, Africa and USA. A jury member’s duty will be to supervise officials and provide oversight to officiating and refereeing.

“This is a big honour for me. I hope I can meet the expectations that FIBA has for this event,” Aneja, whose career in officiating began in 1978 after he passed the National Referee Test, said.

This is the third time there will be a representative from India in the basketball event at the Olympics.

The Indian men’s team had participated in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and three decades later, Snehal Bendke was a woman’s referee at the 2012 London Olympics.

Aneja had played for Delhi for 14 years and was selected for the All-Star Junior Indian Team. Unfortunately, his career was cut short by a knee injury.