The tournament is being held by the Basketball Federtion of India and the Mastan YMCA with the BFI coaches picking the eight men’s and four women’s teams, BFI secretary-general Harish Sharma.
“This is not the NBA, but in our own way we are starting a league for the betterment of basketball. We want the best players from the country playing for balanced teams, but they are not associated with any commercial groups,” Sharma said.
Sharma said the players would be given cash prizes for each match, ranging from Rs 2,000 each to Rs 5,000 each.
The eight men’s teams will be called Rangers, Challengers, Kings, Soldiers, Warriors, Lions, Riders and Prince while the four women’s teams would be known as Power Girls, Super Girls, Wonder Girls and Golden Girls.
Current international players who would feature in the league are Jairam Jat, Hareesh Koroth, Vineeth Mathew, Mihir Pandey, Arjun Singh, Prakash Mishra, Talwainderjit Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Yadwinder Singh, Trideep Rai, Riyazuddin, Akanksha Singh, Seema Singh, Anju Lakra, Kiranjeet Kaur, Anitha Paul Durai, Prashanti Singh, Harjeet Kaur, Raspreet Sidhu and Sonika Ohlyan.
The coaches: Bhupendra Shahi, Ram Kumar (both Railways), SK Raja (TN), Mukhtiar Singh (SAI, Bhopal), Bhaskar (SAI, TN), JP Singh (Jharkhand), Rajinder Singh (SSCB) and BS Hooda (Delhi), Abdul Hamid Khan (Railways), Sat Prakash Yadav (Railways), Prasanna (Railways) and Shiba Maggon (MTNL).
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