The 71st National Basketball championship is
underway in the Nehru Stadium here at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
The tournament which is jointly hosted by the Basketball Federation of India and the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association was inaugurated by predominant dignitaries in their respective fields starting from Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan, Hon'ble Minister for Finance and Human Resource Management, Thiru. Vijay Sethupathi, Actor and Producer, Dr. Ishari K. Ganesh, Tamil Nadu Olympic Association President & Chairman of Vels Group of Institutions, Selvi. Apoorva IAS,Principal Secretary to Government Youth Welfare & Sports Development, Dr. R. Anandakumar IAS, Member Secretary - Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, Thiru. Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General of Basketball Federation of India (BFI), Thiru. Aadhav Arjuna, President of Tamil Nadu Basketball Association - Vice President of BFI - General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Olympic Association, Dr. V. Raghothaman, Treasurer of BFI, Thiru. Chengalvaraya Naidu, Joint secretary of BFI, Thiru. Teja Singh Senior Vice President of BFI, and Thiru. Parida, Joint Secretary of BFI.
The tournament features 16 men’s and 15
women’s state teams to be held from April 3-10, 2022. Both
men and women teams are split into four groups each. Once the first stage of
round-robin clashes concludes, the top two teams from each group progress into
the next stage where eight teams will be divided into two pools. Subsequently,
the top-two from each pool makes it to the semi-final stage.
The
TN men’s team, which won the title in 2018, are in Group C and have Delhi,
Uttarakhand and Mizoram for company. “Qualifying for the next stage will be our
first target. Each match is important and we will have to be on our toes from
the word go,” said the men’s team coach CV Sunny on the eve of the tournament.
Skipper Muin Bek Hafeez is confident that the team possesses the necessary
arsenal to go the distance. “We have a fine side with a good mix of youth and
experience. Five of our players are in college and they complement the seniors
well,” said Muin. While the TN's Women's team is yet to win a national
championship, their coach DelhiRaj is confident of a good show from his team
this year.
Groups:
Men:
Group A: Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Telangana;
Group B: Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Services;
Group C: Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Mizoram;
Group D: Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Indian
Railways.
Women:
Group A: Indian Railways, Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu;
Group B: Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh;
Group C: Telangana, Odisha, Haryana, Assam;
Group D: Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Karnataka.
All the matches are being streamed live in TNBA YouTube channel.
0 Comments