"He has the height and talent"

Satnam Singh, 15 years
Basketball player

He is literally cut out for big deeds. Just 15 but already 7 feet tall, Satnam Singh Bhamra is regarded as the biggest basketball talent unearthed in India in recent times. Many hope the lad will soon become the biggest Indian basketball star.

Son of a farmer and carpenter from Ballo Ke village in Punjab's Barnala district, Satnam is honing his skills at the IMG Academies at Bradenton, Florida, one of the best for the sport in the world. He is part of the first batch of eight Indian youngsters picked by IMG-Reliance for training in the USA.

"He has the height and talent, we have to develop his skills and strength, then he can compete with the best in the world," Dan Barto, coordinator and basketball coach at IMG Academies said on a recent visit to Mumbai.

Basketball was alien to Satnam until a few years back as the boy went about his life, helping his father and studying. A friend of Bhamra Senior advised him to try his luck at the Punjab Basketball Association's academy in Ludhiana and a dream was born. Satnam soon made his mark in youth tournaments in the country. He represented India in the Asia U-16 Championship in Malaysia in November '09 and last year was picked by the national federation to represent India in the Asian camp of NBA's Basketball Without Borders project in Singapore in June. Soon, he was on his way to Florida, dreaming of making it big in Amreeka, as he says in his thick Punjabi accent.