27th All India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament to tip off in Mumbai

One of India’s most prestigious basketball championships, the All India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament (RMBT), will return in its 27th edition to the Indian Gymkhana in Matunga (Mumbai) from April 10-17th. The tournament will feature some of the best state and club teams and top Indian players from around the country in both the Men’s and the Women’s division.

An added attraction to the team list this year is the American-based club squad, Shooting for Success, who have been attending past basketball tournaments like the Savio Cup in Mumbai for several years now.

Eight men’s teams and four women’s teams will be taking part in RMBT 2011. Once again, the competition will feature a host of international / India stars including Sambhaji Kadam (Services), S. Robinson (IOB-Chennai), Trideep Rai (ONGC), Gagandeep Singh and Amit Parashar (Western Railway), and women’s superstar Geethu Anna Jose (Southern Railway) who has recently received a call-up for a tryout with two WNBA teams.

Participating teams are:

Men:

Western Railway

IOB (Tamil Nadu)

Services

ONGC (Uttarakhand)

Shooting for Success (USA)

Punjab

Maharashtra

Cochin Customs

Women:

Southern Railway

Maharashtra

South West Central Railway

Chhattisgarh

In the Mens’ section comprising of Eight Teams will be made into Two Groups each, top two teams from each group will play Semi-final Super League, and, again, the top two teams, in the Semi-Final Super League will play the finals. Group of 4 teams will play League & top 2 teams will qualify for Semi-Finals. & In the Women’s section it will be Round Robin Basis.

The men's winners will receive the glittering Ramu Memorial Trophy and a purse of Rs. 1 Lakh. The winning women's team will receive Rs. 50 Thousand and the Kapila Khandvala Shield.

In addition, there will be 'Player of the Tournament' awards in the Men's and Women's categories.

Like previous years, the tournament will be played on international standard Teraflex courts and will be held under floodlights in a specially erected stadium. This is being done to reduce injury to the players as well as enhance performances through uninhibited high-profile basketball. As in the past, entry is free for spectators and this is being done especially to promote basketball among students and youth.

The Semi-Finals on 16th April and Finals on 17th April 2011 will be telecast live on Doordarshan and, the Finals will be broadcast live on All India Radio's FM Gold, thru’ a live running commentary.

To add to the excitement, 'Predict the Winners', Slam Dunk and Three-Pointer contests for spectators will be held during the competition, where exciting vouchers and gifts will be distributed.

Ramu Memorial Basketball tournament had virtually become a household name, with people from all walks of life and all ages thronging the venue to witness and cheer top quality basketball being dished out by players of the likes of Haridutt, Mathew Satyababu, Hanuman Singh, Abbas Montassir, Ajmer Singh, Sajjan Singh, Khusiram, Ramkumar, the towering giant Sunil Kumar Panda, Shyamlal, Balkar Singh, C.N.Sharma, Vijayraghavan and host of others.

Check out the tournament's official website - RamuMemorial.com for more details, photographs, live scores, and much more!

Basketball tournament at the National Games set to tip off Friday

The 34th National Games 2011, set in Jharkhand, is being held from February 12-26th in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, and Dhanbad, as intimated by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). With over 30 different sporting events taking place, the tournament is featuring some of the best Indian athletes in the different fields.


The Basketball tournament at the National Games is set to be held from February 18th-22nd at the Harivansh Tana Bharat Indoor Stadium at the Mega Sports Complex in Ranchi. The tournament will feature the seven best teams in both the men’s and women’s divisions from the previous year’s Sr. National Basketball Championship, plus the team representing the state that host’s the tournament. Indian Railways are excluded from this tournament.

Thus, the top ranked teams from the 60th National Basketball Championship (Ludhiana) that will take part in this year’s tournament. Hosts Jharkhand qualify automatically as the eight seed in both divisions.

Men

1. Punjab
2. Tamil Nadu
3. Uttarakhand
4. Services
5. Andhra Pradesh
6. Chhattisgarh
7. Karnataka
8. Jharkhand

Women

1. Delhi
2. Chhattisgarh
3. Karnataka
4. Kerala
5. Tamil Nadu
6. Punjab
7. Maharashtra
8. Jharkhand

The last National Games were held back in February 2007 in Guwahati (Assam). Services (Men) and Tamil Nadu (Women) were the winners of the basketball tournament at this competition.

6th UPL All India Savio Cup to tip off in Mumbai

Mumbai’s basketball lovers are in for a feast of high quality basketball, as India's leading male and female hoopsters - along with a team from the United States of America 'Shooting for Success' - will be vying for top honours in the 6th Edition of the UPL All India Savio Cup-Don Bosco Basketball Tournament, held from 23rd January 2011 to 30th January 2011. The tournament will be held at Don Bosco High School (Matunga) and will be sponsored by United Phosphorous Ltd and Co-sponsored by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

The tournament, which has become one of the leading basketball competitions in the country, will feature six teams in the Men’s and four teams in the Women’s divisions.

Father Bosco D’Mello, Organizing Secretary of the tournament said, “The Savio Cup is a brilliant effort of teamwork. Diehard fans of the sport of basketball (both young and not so young) coming together to give a boost to the game of basketball, both to popularize it and take it to great heights by bringing together the best players both of Indian origin and overseas. You have got to be there to live the experience."

Participating Teams

Men: Services, IOB Chennai, Indian Railways, Punjab, Maharashtra, Shooting for Success (San Antonio, Texas, USA).

Women: Southern Railway, South East Central Railway, Karnataka, Maharashtra.

Some of the star players featuring in the tournament will include Shambaji Kadam, Dilip Kumar, Vishesh Bruguvanshi, Talwinder Singh, Mihir Pandey, Jagdeep, Yadwinder Singh, Harish, Geetu Anna Jose, Anita Pauldurai, Bharati Netam, Anju Lakra, Shirin Limaye, Sneha Rajguru, Amrita Baskute, Seema Singh, and others.

A highlight of this year’s tournament is the special felicitation function planned for the Administrators, Referees, Players and Journalists of yesteryear who had made significant contributions to the game of Basketball.

The tournament's organisers are doing a vigorous job in promoting the event. Savio Cup updates can be found on its Facebook page, on Twitter, and the organisers will also be sending SMS updates to fans who wish to submit their number for information.

The men and women will play a round robin league, with the top two teams going on to play the final. The men’s winners stand to gain Rs. 1 lakh, while the runners-up teams will take home Rs. 50,000. The women’s winners will take home Rs. 50,000 with the runner-up teams standing to gain Rs. 25,000. There will be prizes for every match as well as for individual brilliance.

Also planned are a ‘dunking competition’ and a ‘three-point shooting competition’.

The matches will be played on the Terra Flex surface with the use of Electronic Scoreboards and 24-second devices, in specially erected stadium to seat approx. 2000 spectators.

Three matches are expected to be played every day and they will be officiated by International referees, from different states, including three from Maharashtra.

Indian Railways complete a three-peat double of National Basketball Championship

Indian Railways stamped their mark over Indian Basketball as they completed three-years of double victory of both the Men’s and the Women’s squads at the 61st IMG-Reliance National Basketball Championship for Men and Women at the Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday, January 4, 2011.

For the ninth straight year, the Women’s final of the National Basketball Championship was held between budding rivals Indian Railways and Delhi. And for the eight straight year, Indian Railways upheld their dominance in the rivalry and over Women’s basketball in India by destroying Delhi 95-55. Indian Railways have won 23 of the last 25 National Championships, and once again, this was their year in the tournament.

It was more of the same in the Men’s Final, as Indian Railways muscled their way towards a gritty victory against their rivals, Services. This was the third straight National Basketball Championship title for the Railways Men.

After eight days of excitement, from December 28th – January 4th, at the Talkatora Stadium and the Modern School in Barakhamba, the finals of the championship were a showcase event. In the Women’s game, Delhi were no match for Railways’ devastating duo of Geethu Anna Jose (29 points) and Anju (23), as they were blown out by 40 points. Prashanti Singh and Raspreet Sidhu scored 18 and 16 points respectively for the hosts.

In the Men’s game, youngster Arjun Singh caught fire to lead Indian Railways a victory over Services, 74-62. Arjun had 27 points, whereas Jay Ram Jat scored 25 points in a losing effort for the Services side.

In the third place match-ups, Tamil Nadu Women edged out Chhattisgarh in a close encounter, 55-51, behind 18 points apiece by S Kokila and Apoorva Murali Nath. In the Men’s game, Punjab’s superstar Jagdeep Singh found his groove to score 33 points as Punjab beat Kerala 89-67. Amjyot Singh added 16 points for Punjab as they sealed third place. Basil Philip was the top man for Kerala in the match, adding 26 points.

Harish Sharma, the Secretary-General of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) expressed his satisfaction towards a successful tournament. “Thanks to the help of our sponsors, IMG-Reliance, this was the biggest national championship to date. The play on the court didn’t disappoint and it’s obvious for us to see that basketball is growing at an acceleration pace in India. Once again, I would like to thank and congratulate all the participating teams, coaches, managers, support staff, and fans who have helped make this a memorable championship.”

“2010 was a big year for Indian basketball and I’m hoping that 2011 will be even better!” Sharma added.

BFI’s president RS Gill was the honorable guest to present the awards to the winning teams, along with Arjuna Award winner and Indian Basketball legend Mr. Khushi Ram. Both the winning teams received a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakhs each. Runners-up were rewarded Rs. 1 lakh each and third-place winners were rewarded Rs. 50,000 each.

Scores

Women’s Final: Indian Railways 95 (Geethu Anna Jose 29, Anju 23) bt. Delhi 55 (Prashanti Singh 18, Raspreet Sidhu 16).

Men’s Final: Indian Railways 74 (Arjun Singh 27, Gagan Deep Singh 13) bt. Services 62 (Jay Ram Jat 25, Dalip Kumar 14).

Women’s Third-Place Match: Tamil Nadu 55 (S Kokila 18, Apoorva Murali Nath 16) bt. Chhattisgarh 51.

Men’s Third-Place Match: Punjab 89 (Jagdeep Singh 33, Amjyot Singh 16) bt. Kerala 67 (Basil Philip 26, Jomon Jose 13).

Final Standings

Women

Indian Railways
Delhi
Tamil Nadu
Chhattisgarh
Maharashtra
Kerala
Andhra Pradesh
Punjab
Madhya Pradesh
Rajasthan

Men

Indian Railways
Services
Punjab
Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Uttarakhand
Chhattisgarh
Andhra Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Delhi