Article by Darshana Jamindar
At 5th edition of Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) Asia Cup, in China at Wuhan two Indian Sikh players Amritpal Singh and Amjyot Singh were asked to take-off their turbans by the tournament organisers. They were told that non-removal of turbans would be treated as violation of International Basketball Federation rules and were not allowed to play with their turbans. However, Amritpal has clarified that last year`s Asain Championship in Manila and recently held Lusofonia Games in Goa were played with turbans only.
India in Pool A performed well against Iran, Jordan and Philippines. Still matter of forcing to remove turban in the name of International rules and threat for disqualification needs to be viewed critically.
