Customs (Chennai) and KSEB (Thiruvanathapuram) win 2018 All India Basketball Tournaments in Coimbatore

The five-day invitational basketball tournaments in Coimbatore - Nachimuthu Gounder Cup for Men and 17th CRI Pumps Trophy for Women - came to a conclusion on Thursday, May 31, with victories for Customs (Chennai) and KSEB (Thiruvanathapuram) in the Men's and Women's tournaments respectively.

Top club teams from around India were invited for these prestigious tournaments, featuring eight Men's teams and and eight Women's teams. The tournaments were organised by the Coimbatore District Basketball Association (CBDA).

Customs beat Indian Railways 69-63 in the Men's final of this 53rd All-India Championship, led by Hari Ram (26).

In the women's section, KSEB beat Eastern Railway (Kolkata) 59-43 in the final.

Chennai's Indian Overseas Bank win 4th Mulki Ram Sunder Ram Shetty basketball tournament in Bengaluru

Continuing the recent purple patch of performances for Tamil Nadu basketball after the state's victory at last month's Senior Nationals, the Indian Overseas Bank squad from Chennai won gold at India's first major club competition of 2018, the 4th Mulki Ram Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament. IOB won the tournament's finale at the Sri Kantaveera Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, February 4, with an impressive victory over another Chennai squad, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF).

The Mulki Ram tournament was organised by Vijaya Bank in Bengaluru from January 31 to February 4, featuring several of India's top men's club squads, featuring the hosts Vijaya Bank themselves (Bengaluru), IOB, ICF, Income Tax, Customs (all from Chennai), Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala, Punjab), and the Karnataka State Team. Vijaya Bank defeated IOB to win the tournament last year.

In this year's final, IOB proved to be too big and too fast for ICF, and were led by Indian international Aravind Annadurai (23) en route to a comfortable 77-50 victory.

Vijaya Bank won the third-place playoff against Customs in a close contest, 81-76. S. Karthickeyan scored 21 to lead the hosts, while Chennai were led by Justin (27) and Hari Ram (23) in a losing effort.

IOB received ₹1,00,000, while ICF took home ₹50,000. RA Sankara Narayanan, Vijaya Bank CEO and Managing Director, gave away the prizes.

A number of individual awards were also given at the end of the tournament, including:

• Player of the tournament: GA Anto Bethle (ICF)
• Most popular player: Justin (Customs)
• Most promising player: Navin Raj (Vijaya bank)
• Best defender: Aravind Annadurai (IOB)

Vijaya Bank (Men) & Eastern Railway (Women) win 2014 JCI Basketball Tournament at Athirampuzha

Kolkata's outfit Eastern Railway capitalized their unexpected run with a final victory over Assumption College (Changanacherry) to win the 5th JCI All India Invitational Basketball Tournament, held in Athirampuzha in Kottayam district, Kerala on January 12th. In the Men's Final that followed, Bangalore's outfit Vijaya Bank blew out Customs (Chennai) for a resounding victory.

Eastern Railway trailed by two points at halftime of the Women's Final, but turned things around behind a strong effort by Sukurmoni Oran (22) to take the lead over Assumption and fight to a 62-55 win.

In the Men's game, Vijaya's Bank star Aravind was on fire, scoring 31 points to lead the rout over Customs. Vijaya Bank had a 42-22 lead at halftime and cruised to a 72-44 win.

Special guests at the finale - held at Athirampuzha St Aloysius Basketball Stadium - including Kerala's Forest Transport, Sports, Environment, and Cinema Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, MP Jose K Mani, Mons Joseph, Suresh Kurup, NBA-certified coach Jim Coronna , ex India international gootballer IM Vijayan, and India international basketball player CV Sunny.

ONGC (Men) and Central Railway (Women) won the JCI basketball tournament last year.

All India Basketball tournaments to be held in Coimbatore from August 28th

From August 28th - September 2, the 48th PSG Trophy tournament for Men and the 11th CRI Pumps tournament for Women will be held in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, for eight Men's and seven Women's basketball clubs from across India.

Participating teams:

PSG Trophy (Men): ONGC (Dehradun), RCF (Punjab), Indian Navy (Delhi), Customs (Chennai), Vijaya Bank (Bangalore), South Central Railway (Secunderabad), Indian Overseas Bank (Chennai), and Income Tax (Chennai).

CRI Pumps Tournament (Women): South East Central Railway (Chhattisgarh), Southern Railway (Chennai), Electricity Board (Kerala), South Central Railway (Secunderabad), South Western Railway (Hubli), Eastern Railway (Kolkata), and Rising Star (Chennai).

Both tournaments will be played on a league basis, before the Semi Finals and Finals on the 1st and 2nd of September respectively.

ONGC and South East Central Railway won last year's Men's and Women's tournaments respectively.