ALMATY, Kazakhstan (FIBA Asia CABA Sub Zone): Having been the overwhelming choice for the post of the Secretary General, in FIBA Asia’s newly carved out sub zone – Central Asian Basketball Association – Sergey Shmakov is a man of great ambition.

But his ambition is laced with a great deal of practical pragmatism considering that the process of development of standards in the five countries – popularly known as ‘stans’ – that form the Central Asian group – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is uphill.

“The first thing to achieve is a uniform line of thinking towards development. But I think the representatives of all the member National Federations are all on the same wavelength. This was obvious at the Congress (which met at Almaty last Friday, where he was elected as the Secretary General),” Shmakov said in a chat with this website.

“I think once we achieved that, I am confident to reach our targets and goals,” he said.

Excerpts

Can you briefly outline your plans for the sub zone?

I think first and foremost we have to put a proper and professional administrative structure in all our National Federations. Right now the fact of the matter is that the process is not unified. We need a unified approach in each of our NFs which works twin fold.

Firstly, the approach has to concentrate on the micro level of the development in each country. And simultaneously this micro approach should take into account the larger picture of the overall development of the sub zone itself.

We have to establish a proper and efficient method of documentation of the Regulations that govern us. And then we have to be very firm and committed to following what we decide.

This is about the administration. What about the real development of players?

I am coming to that. We have set out a target of organizing basketball camps for boys in the age groups of 14-15 and 16-17. This has to be achieved by 2013.

Once we go through this process, we will go back to the drawing board and correct our mistakes.

We plan start a similar process for girls by the year 2014.

We are also planning to start a League at the sub zone level for children and National Teams by the year 2014.

How do you propose to bring about a unification of thought in each NF?

Like I said, once we put in place a process for proper documentation, we can set out approaching for help.

I propose that as the Secretary General I will take the lead in helping the NFs in approaching their respective National Olympic Committees and Sports Ministries for the help that may be required.

When I say “help” the term involves many meanings according to the situation in each NF. It may be financial help in many a case, it may be help to set up infrastructure in others and so on.

But the key to our success is how we project CABA as a serious, professional and committed unit. That’s the reason I emphasize on proper documentation and following procedures and Regulation.

Is there a specific target you have in mind?

In the sense of teams from CABA participating in FIBA Asia events and achieving results, I can say the target will be for each team to improve on its previous rankings. This will start from the first FIBA Asia event of the 2012 calendar itself.

Once we analyze the performance of the teams in FIBA Asia events, we’ll sit down with the NF and work on methods to improve it further.

Any other comments?

On a personal level, I want to state that I might have committed certain mistakes in the past.

But these were errors in judgment and not deliberate. There was no other motivation apart from the development of basketball.

I have learnt from these mistakes, mainly not to repeat them.

You can say I am a much wiser man (laughs) now and I am fully dedicated to the cause of development of basketball in CABA.

S Mageshwaran / FIBA Asia