Coach Zoran Visic Sees High Hopes for the Indian Women's Basketball Team

In the petite time the Serbian coach, Zoran Visic has been with the Indian women's (and men's) team has taken slow but confident and steady steps. The 61-year-old guided the girls to a B Division gold in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup held in July last and also coached the Indian girls' u-16 team to victory in Division B of the FIBA u-16 Women's Asian championship last year. The Times of India read, 'At the time of Serbian Zoran Visic's appointment as coach of the Indian women's basketball team in June 2017, it might have seemed an unusual choice. The 61-year-old, after all, was completely new to these surroundings and would have needed some time to deliver. However, as Visic himself explains, there is a strong and quirky connection that the man from Serbia feels with India.' Visic who is in Chennai watching the Senior National Basketball Championship told the media, "Interestingly, in Belgrade where I live, I stay on Yuri Gagarin Road which is right between Nehru Road (Nehruova Road) and Mahatma Gandhi Road (Gandijeva Road). As you see, there is a strong history of friendship between India and Serbia (Yugoslavia before the split) which goes a long way back. So whenever something comes up from India, we will never say no.' The amiability is all fine, but Visic knows that he will eventually be judged by results. In April this year, India will be taking part in the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast in Australia. This will be a return to the Commonwealth Games for basketball after 2006 when the Indian women finished a lowly sixth. This time around, they will have to at least show an improvement from that performance. He told the media, "I don't want to promise anything. I can only promise hard work. The girls know my way of working now. I'm an optimist. The women played really well during the recent Asia Cup. We should continue on a similar path. They have a lot of potential and will improve for sure. We need to improve tactically and individually. We have enough time to work on these things. There will be a camp in Bengaluru from February as things stand now.' Source: The Hindu If we ask the coach about Djokovic, there is instant pride in the coach's voice when he talks about the ace tennis player's achievements. While Serbia won the silver medal in basketball at the Rio Olympics and has a rich tradition in the sport, it is Novak Djokovic's exploits in tennis that have put the country on the sporting map. Visic chuckled and told the press, "Novak is president in Serbia.' He added, "He is, of course, the most popular sportsman from the country. Interestingly, the place where I hold a coaching camp in summer is the same court where Djokovic started playing tennis at the age of six." While Visic is the coach of the country's women's team, he is also the interim coach of the men's team. In an interaction with the media in Chennai on Sunday, the coach said that the Indian women's team had a decent chance of reaching the semifinals of the upcoming Commonwealth Games. He told the media, 'I don't want to promise anything. I can only promise hard work. We know each other now. The girls are playing very well. I'm an eternal optimist. You work hard and the results will come. If we beat Jamaica and Malaysia, for example, we are almost in the semis [of the CWG]. They are all good teams for sure, but there is always a chance.' He continued, 'The women played really well in the Asia Cup. We played like a team for sure during the Asia Cup and should continue [that way]. They have a lot of potential and will improve. We need to improve tactically and individually. We have enough time to work on these things. There will be a camp in Bengaluru from February, as things stand now.'