Female basketball players in India are referred to as the “Sleeping Giants” in the world of basketball. The majority of these Indian female basketball players showed the required abilities to succeed and enhance. They were ranked 68th in the FIBA world rankings on March 1, 2021, higher than the men’s squad, which was ranked 76th. Despite having competed in nineteen Asian Championships, there is still opportunity for growth. The sport continues to flourish in India, with Indian female basketball players undoubtedly benefiting from the success.
Today we discuss the top 10 legendary female players in the field of Basketball.
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Shiba Maggon
this ex-Indian female basketballer is known as the ‘Queen of Indian Basketball,’ and she has been collaborating with Team India for almost ten years.
She was a center forward for the national squad, being 5 feet 8 inches tall. Shiba began participating in the sport in 1989. She made the Indian junior team in 1992. Her national honors include a gold and bronze medal in the youth category in 1991. She achieved another gold medal in 1993 and a silver medal at the youth nationals in 1994. Her professional accomplishments include playing in twenty senior nationals between 1989 and 2010. She earned six gold medals for Indian Railways between 1997 and 2002. She has done Diploma at the International Olympic Academy in Athens, Greece. She was also the first Indian woman to be a FIBA-accredited international referee. Shiba, an international coach, previously worked with the NBA in India.
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Divya Singh
Divya Singh is an integral part of the widely recognized “Basketball Family of India.” She is one of four sisters who have represented their country. Her playing journey covered the years 2000 through 2007. Divya was born in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, on July 21, 1982. She is 6 feet tall and plays guard for the national team. She enjoyed similar success to her sisters as a past captain of the Indian women’s basketball team. She led Team India during the 2006 Commonwealth Games and is known for her skillful play and leadership qualities.
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Prashanti Singh
Prashanti Singh, who stands 5 feet 8 inches tall, is an Indian national team shooting guard. She was born in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, on May 5, 1984. Prashanti participated in the Indian women’s basketball team in 2002 and soon took over as captain.
Prashanti has received almost twenty medals during her impressive career. Her medals were from the Indian National Championships, National Games, and Federation Cups. As a result, she holds the national record for the most medals at the senior level at the National Championships. She is also India’s first female basketball player to have represented the national team at numerous levels.
She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2017 for her dedication to the sport. Prashanti became the third woman to get the honor. She was also awarded the Padma Shri honor two years later, in 2019.
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Anitha Pauldurai
Anitha Pauldurai, 5 feet 7 inches tall, was a point shooter for the Indian women’s basketball team. Her career spanned eighteen years.
Anitha defended the Southern Railways at the National Championships, winning thirty medals. She debuted her national team debut in 2001 and quickly established herself as an enduring member of the squad. She was the youngest player ever to captain India’s senior basketball team, at the age of nineteen. She was captain for eight years and led the squad to competitions such as the Commonwealth Games in 2006. During her captaincy, she also assisted India in winning the inaugural 33 Asian Basketball Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2013.
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Barkha Sonkar
Barkha Sonkar, who measures 5 feet 4 inches tall, is one of the list’s youngest members. She has been a part of the Indian women’s basketball team since 2016, representing her country.
She competed for India in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup Division B Championships in 2017. She was chosen for the IMG Reliance scholarship programs for education and training in the United States.
Barkha went to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for high school. She attended Hillsborough Community College after graduating from the program in 2016. During her collegiate years, she was an active member of the Hillsborough Hawks (National Collegiate Athletic Association).
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Prachi Tehlan
Prachi Tehlan, with her professional direction, is one of the most fascinating Indian female basketball players. She is 5 feet 9 inches tall. She has also dabbled in basketball and acting along with basketball.
Her athletic career began with basketball, which she played at the national level while still in high school. Following that, she attended three Indian camps in Cuttack, Orissa, India, in 2004. She competed in two sub-junior nationals (under-14) between 2002 and 2007, at Pondicherry and Karnataka (2002-2003). She represented Delhi eight times in the under-17 division, and she helped the team secure a spot three times.
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Pratima Singh
Pratima is a former basketball player for the Indian team who qualified for the Indian Junior Squad in 2006. Later that year, she would be named captain of the junior team.
The Delhi squad won numerous medals under her captaincy, including gold at the Junior National Championships in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. Other gold medals include those from the 2010 All-India Inter-University Championships in Kottayam, Kerala, India. She also won a gold medal at the All-India University Basketball Championships in Nellore in 2010.
This honor was shared with her sister, as was the joint ‘Best Player’ award. Despite numerous personal honors, including the ‘Best Player’ honors at the university level, there was still more to come. She achieved a gold medal in the inaugural 33rd FIBA Asia Championship.
Pratima has demonstrated her mental strength off the court as well as her outstanding brilliance on the court. Become the FIBA Asia Championship’s leading scorer in 2012.
In 2016, she married Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma.
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Akanksha Singh
The UP girl debuted for the national team in 2004 as a point guard/small forward. She also became the captain of the women’s national team, being 5 feet 11 inches tall. She made her senior nationals debut in 2003, again for the Uttar Pradesh team. She represented the latter despite just being in 11th grade.
She, like her sister Prashanti, made the Delhi team in 2004. Akanksha and Prashanti are separated by her own piece of history, which she created in 2010. Akanksha received the title of MVP in India’s first women’s professional basketball league, the MBPL 2010.
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Appoorva Muralinath
Appoorva Muralinath fought as an athlete from 2005 to 2017. She was a power forward/center for the Indian national team from 2010 to 2015.
She captured two gold and three silver medals while competing for two teams at the nationals. This is made up of teams from SRM University and Madras University. She captained both teams as captain. Appoorva also raced in five All-India Inter-Railway Championships as a professional. During these championships, she obtained four gold medals and one silver medal, as well as other prizes as captain.
In terms of recognition on a global scale, she represented India at the 2012 William Jones Cup in Tapei, Taiwan. Three years later, during the 26th FIBA Asian Championship for Women in Wuhan, China, she waved the flag for her country once more. She debuted as an assistant women’s coach at the private Dean College in Massachusetts, USA, in 2019.
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Geethu Anna Jose
Geethu Anna Jose, 6 feet 2 inches tall, played center for the Indian women’s national team. The best was yet to come after making his debut with the Kerala Junior Basketball Association. She was an athlete of the Ringwood Hawks in the Australian Big V from 2006 to 2008. As a consequence of this, she became the first Indian female basketball player to play professionally for an Australian club. She additionally became India’s first player to try out for an American professional league, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), in 2011.
In 2014, she was awarded the Arjuna Award for her dedication to sports. These honors have helped establish her place as one of the greatest Indian female basketball players, particularly since her retirement in 2017.
