Ringside view: Meenalatha, a star in her own right

CHENNAI: For five years in the early 1990s, a bunch of schoolgirls representing a little-known basketball club from Chengalpattu consistently took on the mighty Southern Railway women’s team that featured some of the country’s top players of the time in tournaments across Tamil Nadu.

Such was the promising talent of this motley bunch that the Premium Basketball Club from St Mary’s School in Chengalpattu soon developed a large following among the state’s knowledgeable basketball fans as it quickly emerged as title-contender, going toe-to-toe with firm favourite Southern Railway.

Spearheading the club’s challenge was centre M Meenalatha, who would play a lead role in Tamil Nadu girls’ maiden Junior National triumph in 1994, and a second title in 1996, and was also the first woman from the state to captain Junior India and later Senior India at the Asian Basketball Championships.

She soon developed into an all-court player with the ability to control the game, change the pace according to the situation, and opened up the country’s best defenses with a combination of body feints, burst of speed and calculated drive-ins.

Meenalatha won the Senior National Championship on six occasions with star-studded Indian Railways after joining Southern Railway as an 18-year-old in 1996, and represented the country at the Asian Basketball Championships for women in 1997 and 2001.

A star in her own right, she is a coach of the Indian women’s team that is currently preparing in Chennai for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China starting later this month. Sports Authority of India coach, Tamil Nadu’s S Baskar is the head coach.

India will field a women’s team in the regular 5x5 format and teams in both the men’s and women’s events in the shorter 3x3 format.

This is Meenalatha’s second international assignment following the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 in Amman, Jordan where the team finished eighth under then head coach, Serbian Zoran Višić.

The 45-year-old took up coaching to stay close to the game she loves after bringing the curtains down on an impressive club career over a decade ago that also included a dozen inter-Railway titles.

She was appointed head coach of the Southern Railway women’s team in 2017 after completing the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Level 1 Coaching certification in 2015, the FIBA Level 2 certification the following year and the WABC (World Association of Basketball Coaches) Level 2 certification in 2017.

For old-timers like this writer, a lasting memory of Meenalatha the player was when although past her prime she returned to strengthen the Tamil Nadu women’s team when the state hosted the National Basketball Championship for men and women in 2011 after a gap of 38 years.

Tamil Nadu women lost to Indian Railways in the semifinals, but on many occasions during what was her final Nationals, Meenalatha showed glimpses of her talent that made her a feared opponent on the court.