When his phone rang at five on Friday morning, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi wasn't upset about having to rouse himself up from sleep. He had been involved in contract talks with the Adelaide 36ers franchise of Australia's National Basketball league and he knew that a call this early could mean only one thing.
"Australia is about four hours ahead of India. So I knew that a call at this time of the morning meant that I had got a contract. So when my agent called me, I knew what had happened" says Bhriguvanshi who becomes only the first Indian to sign a deal with the NBL.
"The NBL is one of the biggest leagues in the world. Right now I am really happy to have got the chance to play there," says the 25-year-old, who is also the captain of the Indian national basketball team.
While the terms of the deal suggest that Bhriguvanshi can only play by replacing an injured player, he himself is looking beyond the limitations of the move. "There is just so much for me to improve on. Last year, Terrance Ferguson (currently in the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise of the NBA) was playing for 36ers. The quality of competition is very high. By training along with the players in the NBL, my own game will improve," says Bhriguvanshi.
In addition to his time with Adelaide 36ers, Bhriguvanshi says he will also get a chance to train with the Dream Basketball Academy. "The head coach over there, Raheem Brown, is one of the best to learn from. And it's in Adelaide itself, so that makes it easy for me to train there," says Bhriguvanshi.
Bhriguvanshi isn't the first Indian player to play overseas. But the bulk of players scouted so far - Satnam Singh (NBA), Palpreet Singh (NBA D League) , Amjyot Singh and Amritpal Singh (Both Japanese Pro League) - have been big men from Punjab. Bhriguvanshi, from Varanasi, is relatively small - at 6 foot four - but has used his technical ability and game sense to become one of India's most dependable players.
As captain of the national team, Bhriguvanshi, who plays as a point guard/small forward, has had a hand in some of India's greatest moments of recent times. India, ranked outside the top 50 in the FIBA World Basketball Rankings, have twice beaten Asia's top team China, won the Lusofonia Games gold at home in Goa, and secured their best international performance in twenty-seven years with a seventh-place finish at the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge in Iran.
For Bhriguvanshi, the journey to the contract started in April this year, when he was chosen as one of four Indians to appear for tryouts for the NBL. Although he had had a short 10 day stint in Malaysia a couple of years ago, the chance to impress in Australia was an opportunity he felt he had to grasp.
"I was a little nervous when I first came to Australia because we had the tryouts almost immediately after we landed. But I had a great experience at the tryouts. On the second day, we had a shooting session and I had the best result among all the players. That gave me a lot of confidence. As the tryouts went on, it just got better," he says.
There was no immediate response after the trials though and Bhriguvanshi resumed his national duties at the BRICS Games in June this year. It was a tournament where India fared badly, losing all three games. Bhriguvanshi picked up an injury to his knee in the final game against China.
Bhriguvanshi was undergoing physical therapy in Dehradun when he got news of his signing in Australia. "I have been undergoing rehabilitation for my knee for the last few days. It was a difficult time, so the news that I have a chance to play in the NBL is a great motivation. Luckily, the injury was only a soft tissue one, so I have been told by the doctors that I will recover in two or three weeks," he says.
And while he is looking forward to playing in Adelaide, his immediate priority is to get fit for the Asia Cup in Lebanon next month. "We have been put in the same group as Iran so it will be a challenge. But it is one I will be looking forward to," he says.