Kaizeen Confectioner of Calcutta has been a key player in West Bengal’s Junior and Youth basketball teams, taking part in three national championships in the last few months. In July 2011, at the 62nd Junior Under-19 (U-19) National Basketball Championship at New Delhi, West Bengal made it to the finals of the lower pool championship after many years when Confectioner converted a free throw in the last six seconds of a game to take the team to the play-offs. A thinking player with a calm temperament, her dribbling skills and sharp passes provide teammates good opportunities to shoot. She was one of the highest scorers from the state at this Championship.
At the 28th Youth National Basketball Championship at the brand new Indoor Stadium of the Divisional Sports Complex in Nagpur in May 2011, Confectioner was always in the starting five and the team’s playmaker. With 600 participants (born on or after January 1, 1995), the competition brought on court 24 boys’ teams and 23 teams for girls. Scoring consistently, Confectioner helped her state team reach the upper pool for the first time and secure a ranking in this tournament.
Kaizeen Confectioner (above) and with the West Bengal girls’ basketball team
In November last year, at the 61st Junior (U-19) National Basketball Championship at New Bombay, though she had just turned 15 and was the youngest member of the squad, she held her own confidently among players two to three years her senior. Currently in Class IX at the prestigious La Martiniere for Girls in Calcutta, the lass has been playing at state level tournaments conducted by the West Bengal Basketball Association and the Women’s Basketball Association of West Bengal since she was 11! She has played for the Calcutta Parsee Club, the Good Council Club and was recently in the winning team for the All Bengal Inter School Tournament and runner-up in the Junior League, says her mother Aban, herself a former captain for many years of the state basketball team in the late 1970s. Kaizeen’s father Cyrus is known in state hockey and football circles for his skill and talent.
Yohan Confectioner: love for football
A love for sports runs strongly in the family. Kaizeen’s brother Yohan plays football. "In 2008, he was one of six boys who went to Munich in Germany for training with the Bayern Football Club. He was also one of the boys from India chosen to be trained by two Arsenal coaches at a three-week camp in Calcutta,” states Aban.
Kaizeen herself exhibits versatility! She has reached the quarterfinals and semi finals in tennis in tournaments conducted by the All India Tennis Association. The pride of the Calcutta Parsee Club, she is the reigning Ladies Singles tennis champion and has been so since she was 11 years old. Victories in badminton and athletics are among her achievements. She is the fastest girl in school in the 200m, 120m and 75m runs and has received one of her awards at the hands of Bengal hero Sourav Ganguly, notes her bio data.