Basketball’s Federation Cup to tip off in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) from Feb 10th

In a competition where the finest basketball teams in the country are set to be pitted against each other, the 25th IMG-Reliance Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men and Women will be held Raipur (Chhattisgarh) from 10th-15th February, 2011. The championship will be conducted by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in association with the Chhattisgarh Pradesh Basketball Association.

The Federation Cup is a tournament that features the top eight teams in both the men’s and women’s divisions from the previous year’s Sr. National Basketball Championship. Thus, the top ranked teams from the 60th National Basketball Championship (in Ludhiana) will take part in the Federation Cup this year.

The participating squads are:

Men

1. Indian Railways
2. Tamil Nadu
3. Uttarakhand
4. Services
5. Andhra Pradesh
6. Chhattisgarh
7. Karnataka
8. Kerala

Women

1. Indian Railways
2. Delhi
3. Chhattisgarh
4. Karnataka
5. Kerala
6. Tamil Nadu
7. Maharashtra
8. Andhra Pradesh

The host team qualifies automatically – this year, hosts Chhattisgarh already fell in the top-eight of both divisions. The Men and Women’s teams from Punjab will not be participating, and have been replaced by Kerala (Men) and Andhra Pradesh (Women).

The 24th edition of the Federation Cup was held at Alwar (Rajasthan) from October 22nd-26th, 2009. ONGC (Uttrakhand) were champion amongst the Men while SEC (Indian Railways) won the Women’s division.