Ahmedabad to host Federation Cup basketball

Defending champions ONGC (Uttarakhand) men and Tamil Nadu women will hope to replicate their last year's performance at the 28th Federation Cup National Basketball Championship for Men and Women to be held here Jan 4-9.

Gujarat Basketball Association (GBA) will host the tournament, organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and supported by IMG-Reliance, to be held at YMCA International Centre.

Eighteen teams, nine men's and women's each, will participate in the country's top competition played on a league-cum-knockout basis. The winner will take home Rs.1 lakh while the first and second runners-up will respectively receive Rs.75,000 and Rs.50,000.

The event will showcase some of the best talents like Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Yadvinder Singh, Trideep Rai, Amritpal Singh, Narender Grewal, Palpreet Singh, Rikin Pethani, P. Anitha, Raja Priya Dharsini, P.S. Jeena, Manisha Dange and Shireen Limaye.

"I am pleased to announce that the 28th Federation Cup National Basketball Championship for Men and Women will be held in Ahmedabad. BFI is thankful to GBA for rendering its support in hosting the event this year," BFI chief executive officer Roopam Harish Sharma said.

The Federation Cup, which began in 1984, is held annually and is the most coveted tournament in the BFI calendar.

The following are the teams:

Men: ONGC (Uttarakhand), Bhilai Steel Plant (Chhattisgarh), Bhavnagar District (Gujarat), Northeast Frontier Railway, Central Excise (Kerala), Border Security Force (Punjab), Distt. Sikar (Rajasthan), Army Red (Services) and India Overseas Bank (Tamil Nadu).

Women: Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Southern Railway, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat, Delhi and Chhattisgarh.