Almost two months after two Sikh players were forced to play without their turbans, Basketball’s governing body (Fiba) announced that players will be allowed to wear religious headgears and decided to put a testing phase into place for the next two years. The statement was issued by the body’s director of communication Patrick Koller.
The decision to relax the rules on religious head coverings comes after sustained pressure brought upon Fiba by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the sports ministry on the racial injustice meted out to Amritpal and Amjyot Singh in China and also to Amnol Singh in the U-18 Doha meet.
Fiba’s central board under the leadership of newly-elected President Horacio Muratore met on Sept 13 and held “discussions regarding rules about uniforms” and decided to allow a two-year testing phase that would let players wear head coverings.
Citing basketball rules, the organizers at the Asia Cup Basketball Championship in China, asked the two players to remove the turbans before their first match on July 12. Turban row resurfaced again at Doha during the Asia U-18 meet. Amritpal, Amjyot and Anmol then used rubber bands to hold their hair back.
The Fiba in its last central board meeting of the 2010-14 term on Aug 27 failed to review its ban on religious headgear and decided to do further analysis of a rule that effectively discriminates against Sikh hoopsters.
Three days after the Fiba central board convened its first meeting of the 2014-2019 term and after repeated enquiries with its officials the body’s director of communication issued a detailed statement. “Relaxing the current rules regarding headgear in order to enable national federations to request, as of now, exceptions to be applied at the national level within their territory without incurring any sanctions for violation of Fiba's official basketball rules. National federations wishing to apply for such an exception to the uniform regulations shall submit a detailed request to Fiba. Once approved, they shall submit follow-up reports twice a year to monitor the use of such exceptions.”
Sikh players cut hair before Asiad
As the International basketball body took almost two months to allow players with religious headgear to play in Fiba endorsed competitions, both the ‘humiliated’ Sikh Indian players, Amritpal and Amjyot Singh, chose to go for a hair cut before boarding the flight to Incheon for the Asiad.
However, it is reliably learnt that both players will not remove their turbans. However, they will play without their patkas to avoid any further trouble.
Both players however avoided questions on why they opted to go for a hair cut, but were relieved with Fiba’s decision to allow religious head gear.
