Experienced Shireen to lead young Maharashtra in Sr Nationals basketball

NAGPUR: Experienced Pune Centre

Shireen Limaye

will lead a relatively young Maharashtra women team in the

68th Senior National Basketball Championship

scheduled to be held at the

Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium

, Chennai, from January 17 to 24.

The eight-day nationals are being organized by Basketball Federation of India (

BFI

) to pick the Indian teams for the Fiba Asia Basketball Championships.

After becoming the youngest player in the country to don the national cap when she was just 16 years old, Shireen in the last six years has become a more matured player. Being the senior most member with a handy experience of playing many international championships Shireen was deservedly given the charge to lead the 12-member young Maharashtra outfit.

After a six-day senior state championship at Matunga in Mumbai, where Pune successfully defended their women's crown with a comfortable triumph over Nagpur, Maharashtra State Basketball Association (MSBA) conducted a 10-day preparatory camp for 16 probable players. After the preparatory camp in Mumbai the MSBA declared the 12-member men and women teams on Sunday. The state women is playing in the upper-pool - a group of top-10 Indian teams.

In addition to the experience that Shireen brings, the young Maharashtra squad with an average age of 21, comprises lanky guards Sakshi Arora of Mumbai North and Nagpur's second international player

Mugdha Amraotkar

. Upcoming forwards Shruti Sherigar of Pune, Shreya Dandekar from Nagpur and Thane's Careena Menezes will look to test their limits against the top Indian defenders.

Seasoned shooting guard Rupali Tripathi of Pune will share her experience of long distance shooting with Kolhapur's Swapnali Chavan, Rutuja Pawar from Satara and Kareena Suryawanshi of Dhule. Youngest member of the state squad

Suzanne Pinto

from Mumbai North and Rachael Netto of Mumbai Central will be handy under the glass as post guards for Maharashtra.

For the young women squad the coaching department, however, is relatively more experienced with Pune's Lalit Nahata being named as the head coach and Mumbai's Ramesh Dhotre given the charge as a coach of Maharashtra. One of the best in handling the technical aspects of the game and national referee

Abraham Poulose

of Mumbai is the manager of the team.


Maharashtra Women Basketball Team

Shireen Limaye (captain), Rupali Tripathi, Shruti Sherigar (all Pune), Mugdha Amraotkar, Shreya Dandekar (both Nagpur), Sakshi Arora, Suzanne Pinto (both Mumbai North), Rachael Netto (Mumbai Central), Careena Menezes (Thane), Rutuja Pawar (Satara), Swapnali Chavan (Kolhapur), Kareena Suryawanshi (Dhule).

Head Coach: Lalit Nahata ; Coach: Ramesh Dhotre, Manager: Abraham Poulose.