MUMBAI: After many a stop and start along the way, the Basketball Federation of India’s (BFI) first-ever national league is finally primed and ready for tip-off.
The jerseys and logos of the six city teams that will compete in the inaugural Indian National Basketball League (INBL) were unveiled here Tuesday.
Pertinent to note is that Kochi, a preferred venue for football’s ISL season-openers and for volleyball’s professional leagues in the last few years, will now also have a squad in the INBL, while the Kolkata team, which was part of the INBL’s initial plans, has been dropped. Cuttack was also dropped as a venue.
“Some changes will be there sometimes. We are doing it depending on facilities and stadium availability,” BFI president K. Govindaraj told The Hindu.
Coming back to the teams, Arvind Arumugam (Bengaluru Kings), M Arvind Kumar (Chennai Heat), Arvinder Singh Kahlon (Chandigarh Warriors), Digvijay Singh (Delhi Dribblers), Sejin Mathew (Kochi Tigers) and Sidhant Shinde (Mumbai Titans) posed with celebrity actor Siddharth Malhotra at the launch function.
The first round is scheduled to be played in Kochi from October 16 to 20, the second in Jaipur from October 26 to 30 and the third in Pune from December 7 to 11. The play-offs will be hosted in Bengaluru from January 11 to 15, 2023.
There will be cash prizes for each round of the competition as well as the playoffs. The BFI had earlier announced a total prize fund of over Rs 50 lakh for the event.
Govindaraj said: “It is true that millions of basketball fans have dreamt of a national league in India for a long time. But our aim is not only having a high-quality basketball league, but taking every other aspect of the sport including laying a strong and sustainable process for development at the grassroots level. We have appointed Headstart Arena India (HAI) to execute the plans as per the vision of the BFI executive council.”
HAI chairman Rupinder Brar opined: “We are pleased to be working with BFI to launch this great initiative. This is a great opportunity for the top talent in India to have a platform to showcase their ability against well matched opposition.
“This is the second initiative that we are promoting after the very successful INBL 3×3 Season 1 earlier this year, which saw more than 9,000 players and 2,500 teams involved in the competition conducted in 20 cities across the country. We are also proud to state on the record the champions of INBL 3×3 Season 1 National Finals – Ludhiana_INBL – became the first ever all-Indian roster to participate in a FIBA 3×3 World Tour event in Cebu earlier this month. We hope to continue helping to develop the sport at all levels and ultimately help Indian basketball achieve the levels it deserves.”
