Amarnath — a sanyasi who is part of Indian basketball’s Olympic history

Amarnath Nagarajan in Kochi on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Stan Rayan

His dad and mom named him after legendary cricketer Lala Amarnath and Amarnath Nagarajan was a good batter and a sensible offspinner at school. The teenager, from Periyakulam in Tamil Nadu’s Theni District, was adept in hockey and athletics too.

But as soon as he took up basketball, at 16, all the opposite sports activities took a again seat. And like Lala, a former Indian captain, Amarnath additionally went on to guide the nation in basketball. He was additionally a part of the historic Indian group that performed the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the one time an Indian basketball group featured within the Summer Games.

“We got the chance to play in Moscow very unexpectedly. Though India finished fifth in the 1979 Asia Cup, the Olympic qualification event, four teams that finished ahead of us joined the US-led boycott of the Olympics and suddenly, we had qualified for Moscow. We knew we were nowhere near the other teams, but we enjoyed the experience,” mentioned Amarnath, the Indian captain on the 1982 Asian Games, in a chat with The Hindu on the Regional Sports Centre right here on Saturday night.

Now a Coimbatore-based sanyasi who goes by the title Swami Nateshananda Saraswati, Amarnath was the chief visitor for Team Rebound’s basketball gamers’ reunion right here.

Expectedly, India misplaced all its seven matches – together with three within the group section – within the Olympics however Amarnath performed towards some legends in Moscow. There was Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt, the main scorer in Olympic history with greater than 1000 factors, and USSR’s Sergey Belov who received 4 Olympic medals and lit the Flame in Moscow.

“Oscar was about our height (6’2) but he was shooting like anything,” mentioned Amarnath. “And at the Games, the players were all very friendly.”

Despite making their Olympic debut, Amarnath revealed that the massive stage didn’t shock the Indians or make them nervous.

“We played in the 60,000-capacity stadium, it was like playing at the Eden Garden but indoors…just imagine how it will be. Whether you look at the size, speed or skills, we were not a match for any of the teams. We knew what the result would be, we took it as a golden opportunity,” mentioned the 70-year-old.

“And almost every player in the USSR and other teams had played 200 major international matches. We had played less than 20 when we started in Moscow. India finished last in the 12-team event, without a win.”

It is 44 years since India performed within the Olympics…is he stunned that the nation has nonetheless not received again to the massive stage?

“No,” mentioned Amarnath. “The Olympics is for the top 12…back then our world ranking was above 50, now we are 82. How can it be a surprise. They are making a lot of plans to improve, but unless an individual player matches the opponent’s individual player, you cannot make any progress.”

Ten years in the past, Amarnath retired as assistant basic supervisor from the State Bank of India and in 2019, nearly a yr after his spouse’s loss of life, he grew to become a sanyasi after studying many spiritual books.

“Slowly, I began seeing things from the right perspective. But a basketballer’s life is more disciplined than a sanyasi’s … the toughest, however, is the banker’s life.”