HOOP STAR

Ameeta Mascarenhas

captained Goa to its best

basketball

show ever, a silver medal at the

Women’s Sports Festival

in 1980, and found a place among the India campers

At every given opportunity, Ameeta Mascarenhas would run to the basketball court. Whether it was before the start of the school assembly, recess at school – forget the tiffin box – or during free time, she would be the first to land at the court.


There was nothing to gain. No giant kit manufacturers and certainly no sponsors. When someone came forward to help, it was with oversized cotton T-shirts, canvas shoes – PT shoes as everyone knew them that guaranteed blisters after a while – and a pair of socks. Yet, nobody complained.

“We were all madly in love with the sport,” recalls Ameeta.

The love-affair started at Our Lady of Rosary High School in Dona Paula when CF Vaz, the erstwhile president of the

Goa Basketball Association

(GBA), arrived at the school on his scooter and a ball in his bag. That kickstarted a movement, and the girls didn’t look back.

“Those days, it was fun. At the first mini nationals that we took part, we were found wanting. We were still novices and didn’t have a clue about the standard elsewhere (in the country),” says Ameeta.

The first nationals that the girls took part was the Mini National Basketball Championship in Nashik in 1974 where Goa came a cropper. But within a year when Goa showed up in Kothagudem, Andhra Pradesh, they had made so much progress that they made it to the last-four stage, a show they repeated twice.
In fact, when the Junior Nationals were held in Goa for the first time in 1981, the hosts won plenty of hearts with their splendid performance, losing the semifinal playoffs by just three points against Kerala (41-44).

“Our progress was remarkable. There were teams like Punjab, Maharashtra and Karnataka which were really good, but the rest we could definitely beat. We were all good (players),” says Ameeta.

Led by Ameeta, Goa’s best show came at the National Sports Festival for Women, Jabalpur, in 1980 when they made it to the final, losing the title clash against Maharashtra. That didn’t go unnoticed.

Ameeta, along with her sister Anjali and three others were handpicked for the India coaching camp to select the India junior squads for the Asian Youth Cup. No player from Goa eventually made the cut, but having spent six weeks in Bengaluru among India’s best players, you could tell Ameeta belonged to the big league.

“Those six weeks with the India campers at the Kanteerava Stadium (in Bengaluru) were unforgettable. It was the first time we were trained with some scientific basis– weights and cross training, besides basketball coaching. It was inspiring to be part of a group of the best sports-people from all over India,” says Ameeta, who was joined at Bengaluru by the country’s badminton and athletics teams, preparing for the Asian Games at home.

Daughter of freedom fighter and veteran journalist

Lambert Mascarenhas

and Dr Jolly, it helped that Ameeta came from a family of sportspersons. Her sister Anjali was an equally good basketball player, elder sister Nayantara was an excellent athlete and brother Jude wasn’t far behind. It was the unwavering focus on education, though, that held her back.

“Sports was a secondary thing. Our parents wanted us to do well in both. You could never choose sports over education,” says Ameeta.

Till Class XII, though, Ameeta managed education and basketball quite well.

“We were so passionate. Our parents pushed us too. Can you imagine 12-year-olds travelling in second-class unreserved train compartments? Every time we travelled, it was the same story: packed like sardines, no reservations, sometimes standing,” she says.

By the time they reached the destination, sometimes after four days of train journey, there was no energy left. Some were sick, yet when they took to the court, Ameeta in particular, there was no stopping.

Goa’s star who always led the show was forced to slow down when she opted for medicine at the Goa Medical College. That meant goodbye to basketball, a sport she loved dearly. For those who saw her play, the question remains: What if?