Vijaya Bank pull out

'Waiver Form', the bone of contention for champions

The Bankmen were to play Sports Hostel in their third match of the tournament but when they arrived at the venue, the Sree Kanteerava stadium, they were asked to sign the ‘Waiver Form’ by the organisers.

“We told them that we need to speak to higher authorities before signing it and we could do it after the match,” said Vijaya Bank captain and former international B S Gautam. “But they insisted that we sign the paper before the start of the match and when we refused, they said we can’t play the match.”

All other teams participating in the tournament have signed the form. The NBA said all teams needed to sign the form before taking part in the tournament. “Vijaya Bank had been asked to sign the form before the start of the tournament itself but they asked for exemption for the time being and we provided it. But they needed to sign it before today’s game,” said Akash Jain, head of NBA operations in India. “Vijaya Bank’s presence is important for us and we will welcome their participation if they sign the form,” he said.

Gautam countered, “We have already played two matches in the tournament and we were keen to support the event. We just said we need time but they said they can’t wait.”

Vijaya Bank were in doubt for the tournament after a clutch of their players suffered injuries but they went ahead with their participation, and won their first two matches before Friday’s developments. Meanwhile, in the only men’s match of the day, Hindustan Aeronautics Sports Club defeated VBC, Mandya 78-69.

Results: Men: HASC 78 (Umashankar 17) bt VBC Mandya 69 (Arvind 19). Boys: Under-18: Greens BC: 49 (Sebaaz 21) bt National Games Village: 47 (Rahul 12); Beagles BC: 61 (Hrishikessh 20) bt Appaiah: 20 (Pawan 10); Sports Hostel Bangalore: 46 (Pawan 16) bt Balakrishna: 14 (Srivatsa 5); Southern Blues: 71 (Visu 25) bt BCBC: 25 (Govind 6). Under-13: Jayanagar SC: 12 (Samved Prasad 9) bt Kanaka Kolar: 11 (Abhicarh 5); Halasuru SU: 40 (Shirhar 6) bt Vidya Niketan: 14 (Hari 11); Bharath SU: 27 (Ajay Srinivas 11) bt BCBC: 9 (Chandan 7).
Girls: Under-16: Sports School Vidyanagar: 30 (Anusha 16) bt Halasur SU: 29 (Dechka 11).
Under-18: Beagles: 47 (Simonalle 16) bt Rajkumar BC: 9 (Namitaa 5).
Under-13: Mounts Club: 30 (Rashmika Rajan 13) bt JSC: 24 (Anusha 13).