Northern Spartans from Amritsar triumph in the first ever India Finals of RedBull Reign

Indian Gymkhana, Matunga in Mumbai hosted the first ever India Finals of Red Bull Reign - a unique global 3 on 3 basketball tournament on 8th June 2019. With 16 teams (the winners of the respective 12 city qualifiers and 4 wildcard teams) the national finals witnessed high paced basketball across 39 matches. Amritsar's Northern Spartans defeated Team Drop Step from Goa 17-11 in the final to secure the title, and win their ticket to the RedBull Reign World Championship in Toronto later this year.

The winning team were led by the consistent dominance of India's recent national captain Amritpal Singh. He received ample support from Arshpreet Singh Bhullar, Rajvir Singh, and Israel Fernando en route to the title. Northern Spartans had defeated Tune Squad (Delhi-Chandigarh) in the semi-finals 21-14. While on the other side, Team Drop Step reached the final with a tightly-contested win over Income Tax from Ahmedabad, 16-14.

The Red Bull Reign tournaments have been held in over a dozen countries this year. The winners of the Toronto Finals will have a shot at 10,000 USD prize money.

Starting in April 7, Red Bull Reign’s 3x3 was held across 12 cities: Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Aizawl, Guwahati, Delhi, Ludhiana and Jaipur. The city winners from each event came to Mumbai on June 8 to battle it out for the national championship. Four ‘wildcard’ teams, featuring some of the top players in India, were also added to the finals fray. A number of India's other top players took part in the finals in Mumbai, including India’s number 1 ranked 3x3 player Dhruv Barman, Mizoram’s star guard Lalrina Renthelei, Sowkin Shetty, Pratyanshu Tomar, Vinay Kaushik, and more.

Top 3x3 teams from around the country head to Mumbai for Red Bull Reign National Finals

After a two-month, 12-city tour around India, featuring high-level 3x3 basketball action and some of the top present and future talents in India, the first-ever Red Bull Reign season in India will conclude in Mumbai with the national finals on June 8, 2019. The 12 winners of each city's event, plus four wildcard teams, will play out for the national crown at the Indian Gymkhana in Mumbai.

Starting on April 7, the basketball tournament was held in Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Goa, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Aizawl, Guwahati, Delhi, Ludhiana and Jaipur. This event is a continuation of Red Bull Reign events around the world, including the USA, UK, Canada, Philippines, and more. The National Finals winners in Mumbai will get an opportunity to represent India at the World Finals in United States.

National Finalists

• Team Clutch (Bengaluru)
• Team Phoenix (Chennai)
• Team Loyala (Hyderabad)
• Income Tax (Ahmedabad)
• Team Customs (Pune)
• Team Dropset (Goa)
• Eklaavya Society (Jaipur)
• NFR A (Guwahati)
• Team BBQ Chicken (Aizawl)
• Team Singh (Mumbai)
• Team Punjab Warriors (Ludhiana)
• Team Income Tax A (Delhi)
• Northern Spartans (Wildcard)
• Tune Squad (Wildcard)
• Sports U (Wildcard)
• Excellence (Wildcard)

A number of top Indian players are expected to take part in the day of the national finals, including Amritpal Singh, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Yadwinder Singh, Arshpreet Bhullar, Lalrina Renthelei, Vinay Kaushik, and Ravi Bhardwaj.

Elevating the Game: Elevate Basketball Academy begins professional training center in Mumbai

India's success and failures have been conducted yin and yang with the efforts of the public and the private sector. Where the government failed it's people, the people stepped up and created their own success.

And in basketball - where for decades the world's second-highest population has yet to take a notable step forward - we're finally going to have someone step up and help provide the professional training and support required to turn India's potential into reality.

Elevate Sports - who have been supporting basketball in the country for several years - partnered with Global Sports Partners (GSP), an internationally recognized sports consulting company, to launch India's most professional basketball training Academy in Mumbai. The first center of the Elevate Basketball Academy opened up at the Indian Gymkhana in Matunga on February 1. With international basketball experts and coaches at the helm, the Academy aims to track and hone grassroots basketball talent from around the city and help them realize their hoop dreams.

Elevate have been organizing and supporting basketball events in Mumbai for a long time, particularly the annual crowd-pleasing Savio Cup and Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament, both of which are some of the most professionally-conducted basketball championships in India.

Elevate have entered an initial three-year partnership with GSP to launch the Basketball Academy. Vinod Muthukumar, the Managing Partner of Elevate Sports, has expressed their plans to launch many more centers after Indian Gymkhana in the city over the coming weeks.

Unlike a conventional basketball academy, the aim for Elevate will be to identify talent from different parts of the city and provide them a structured training programme with special emphasis on fitness, diet and conditioning. Muthukumar said that they will be targeting school programmes, with participating kids initially paying a fee. "At a later stage the kids will be selected based on their performance to form an elite squad where the training will be more intensive," added Muthukumar, "By targeting schools, we get a ready bunch of kids and we shall be also be targeting the nearby vicinity kids to join the academy."

The total programme will include health and nutrition information, a fitness plan, as well as basketball training

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Academy programme, and one which sets the academy apart from many other Academies and school basketball programmes, is the opportunity to be coached by USA trained coaches - brought together by GSP - using coaching styles and methods employed by the preeminent basketball nation in the world. The coaches have been selected and trained by USA coaches who have 30 years of experience coaching all age groups in multiple countries and at various levels.

Once fully operational, Elevate-GSP will take its advanced methods to schools across the country and establish academies there. In the long run, this would serve as a model to groom talent at the grassroots level and prepare youngsters for the future proposed Indian professional basketball league.

The Academy promises to use a 'player-centered' approach to training and coaching. The focus will be on individual skill development through a personal, one-on-one basketball instruction programme. The academy aims at enabling players to be able to move through the system and as they do so pick up the tactics and skills to move on to the next level. It will embrace all aspects of player development to build the better person, the better athlete and ultimately the better basketball player. The one-on-one instruction, along with group/team training, will give them the opportunity to instruct students of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels (6-17 years old) while accomplishing the task of individual skill development advancement.

On signing up at the Academy, a player will undergo an initial player profile to evaluate and record their fitness level, basketball skills level, and goals for their progression in the Academy. Each player would be and given an individualized program,e to follow. The players would undergo regular 3 month reviews, always identifying their progress and areas to continue working towards their goals along their sports journey and beyond! Players will train for up to 5-10 hours a week around their academic timetable.

At least 10 percent of the student admissions at the Elevate Basketball Academy will be reserved for talented players from under-privileged backgrounds.

Looking ahead, Elevate plans to market players from India and present them to team owners and college athletic departments primarily in the USA. Elevate will work closely with these players to create a player promotion kit which would contain a video of their game and highlight their talent through a presentation and also publish them on our website so that scouts could view their profile and select them for try-outs. The eventual aim is to place the players in the NBA and the NCAA Division One Teams, and other leagues within Europe and Asia that offer great opportunity to market Indian talent.

Elevate are aspiring to be India's leading sports solutions company. Currently, they provide services in event planning and management, basketball talent scouting, television and web-enabled sports production, and now, the Academy.

GSP is an internationally recognized sport consulting company with strategically placed representatives throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. The company work at all levels of sport, including Professional, Olympic, Club, University and Recreational.

Hopefully, the Elevate Academy's mission - to produce skilled, motivated, and athletic basketball players in India - can come to fruition soon so that some of those talents can start breaking into India's national squads and of course, fulfill every basketball fan's dream of seeing an Indian one day play for the world's best basketball leagues. The Academy could motivate others to start taking sports like basketball more seriously and professionally in India.

ONGC and Southern Railway win 2013 Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament in Mumbai

India’s premier invitational basketball competition – the Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament (RMBT) came to a conclusion in Mumbai on Sunday night with thrilling finales at the Indian Gymkhana basketball courts in Matunga. The 10-day long tournament, which featured India’s finest men and women players, as well as top youth players from the state of Maharashtra, concluded with victories for ONGC (Men), Southern Railway (Women) and Savio Club (Youth Boys).

The RMBT is one of the most prestigious basketball tournaments in the country. This was the 28th edition of the tournament, featuring participation from 11 teams from all across India in the Men’s and Women’s division and a further eight teams in the Youth (U21) tournament from Maharashtra.

In a hotly-contested Men’s final, ONGC (Uttarakhand) were made to sweat against IOB (Chennai), as the game went all the way down to the wire. While ONGC enjoyed a nine point lead at halftime, IOB stormed back in the third quarter and remained neck to neck with ONGC in the fourth till the final buzzer. Behind dominating performances by India internationals Yadwinder Singh (18 points) and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (17), ONGC were able to maintain their lead and win the game 59-54. Pratham Singh (21) and Rikin Pethani (18 points, 10 rebounds) were the leading scorers for IOB.

The Women’s final, which pitted two of India’s finest sides in Southern Railway and Chhattisgarh against each other, turned out into a blowout in Railway’s favour. Southern Railway, who had been defeated by Chhattisgarh by one point in a thrilling group game earlier in the week, took revenge by jumping into an early 15-4 lead in the first quarter of the Final en route to an impressive 64-39 victory which retained them the RMBT title. Railways’ Anitha Pauldurai – who struggled with her shot all game – nevertheless ended up with 17 points and 9 rebounds to lead the way for her squad. R Rajpriya had 20 points and 6 rebounds.
Railways played without the presence of their legendary Center Geethu Anna Jose.

The Final of the Maharashtra Youth Boys Tournament was also held on Sunday and won by Savio Club, who used their considerable height advantage to slip dominate Mastan YMCA 86-54.

Vishesh Bhriguvanshi of ONGC won the Best Player trophy at the tournament.

Earlier on Saturday, ONGC defeated Indian Air Force 72-52 in the first Men’s Semi-Final led by Bhriguvanshi's efficient 27 points and lock-down defence on the other end. IOB played in a thrilling second final against Punjab which they won 79-75.

A ‘Skills Challenge’ – akin to the similar competition held at the NBA’s All Star Weekend – was also held on Saturday. Southern Railway’s Kokila (Women) and RCF’s Kapurthala’s Nikhil Chopra (Men) emerged as winners.

This year’s RMBT took a step further than any other basketball competition in India in terms of embracing technology in promoting their games across the country, and potentially, across the world. Although Ramu Memorial has always been an attractive destination for local fans to attend and watch India’s finest players in action, this year, the action was brought closer to home than ever for those following the championship from long-distance. Through effective use of Facebook, Twitter, and the RMBT website, fans were able to get instant updates and recaps of the action. The games were shown on DD Sports as usual, but this year, the tournament was even live-streamed on RMBT’s YouTube page.

Brandon Jennings attends finals of Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge

Danish Qureshi of Hume High School, Mumbai and Nishanti of St. Joseph’s Anglo Indian Secondary School, Chennai were crowned champions in the Jr. NBA and Jr WNBA National Skills Challenge and earned an all-expense paid trip to the NBA headquarters in the US.

Together with 50 of the most skilled youngsters of the 10-12 year age group, Qureshi and Nishanti exhibited their skills at the National Finals of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA National Skills Challenge at the Indian Gymkhana basketball courts on Sunday evening.

The event was attended by Brandon Jennings, star NBA player of the Milwaukee Bucks, who was also a judge at the finals. Jennings handed the winners their trophy and their prizes. Impressed by the talent displayed by some of the kids, and gave the students some useful tips on the game and demonstrated a few tricks, too.

Geethu Anna Jose, the former captain of the Indian women national team, too was pleased with the talent and determination displayed by some of the students and had encouraging words for the winners, who will have the opportunity to train with an NBA coach, visit the NBA league headquarters and historic landmarks in New York.

The Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA program in India, supported by Basketball Federation of India (BFI), HP, Spalding, and Ten Sports saw around 500 schools from five cities participate in the Skills Challenge, a competition that tests the participants’ abilities in various basketball fundamentals, including dribbling, passing, and shooting.

2011 Ramu Memorial Tournament starts in style; Holders IOB eke out close victory

Mumbai’s most-storied and oldest hoops competition, the All India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament (RMBT) at the Indian Gymkhana in Matunga, got off to an intriguing start on Sunday, April 10th as the holders IOB (Chennai) held on for an intense, close victory over the underdog Cochin Customs side. The hosts, Maharashtra, saw their Women’s team dominate South Western Railway for a comfortable 16 point victory.

The RMBT, which is now in its 27th edition, is being sponsored by United Phosphorus Limited (UPL). The tournament has a lot of history in the city of Mumbai, as it started off in the mid-1960s as a local, inner-city competition, and in the late 70s became the All India tournament that it is today. For a period of 13 years between 1993-2005, the tournament was discontinued, but it has gained momentum again since 2006 and has once again become an essential part of Mumbai’s hoops culture.

One of the men’s teams that has always been successful at Ramu have been the Indian Overseas Bank – Chennai (IOB), who have won it three times in the last five years, including last year’s edition. Featuring the likes of Hareesh Koroth, Abhilekh Paul, Mihir Pandey, and the legendary S. Robinson, this team rolled in with high expectations but had a surprisingly slow start against Kerala’s Cochin Customs side. In a tight game throughout where neither team could take a huge lead, IOB survived to win 64-63. Paul scored 23 for the winning side while Pandey added 20 to go with 10 rebounds. For Cochin, Eudrick Perreira (17) and S. Monish (16) were the high scorers.

The first game of the tournament was a rousing victory by home side, Maharashtra Women, against South Western Railway from Karnataka. Smruthi was at her unstoppable best for Maharashtra, scoring 31 points as her team got off to a strong start. They held on to a comfortable 13 point lead at the half and maintained a steady tempo for the rest of the game to win 72-56. Manisha Dange added 17 for Maharasthra, while Savitha had 20 for South Western Railway.

The last game of the night was an encounter pitting several Indian superstars against each other – Western Railway Men came out to the court to battle Punjab. Western Railway wanted to stamp their dominance early, as they held on to a 10 point lead after a defensively strong first quarter and kept the lead uptil halftime. Punjab made a comeback in the third, but in the end, their efforts weren't strong enough from stopping Western Raiwlay from racing away to a 71-65 victory. Gagan Deep Singh was the star of the show for the winning side, scoring 18 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. Jagdeep Singh, who was named 'Best Player' at the previous night's All Star Game, kept up his good form with 28 points and 8 rebounds for Punjab, but it wasn't enough to secure a victory.

Vinod Muthukumar, the tournament director, was encouraged by the start to the competition and was looking forward to more interest from the public over the next week. “This year of the RMBT will be a little different and we are hoping to add more excitement and fan interaction,” said Muthukumar, “The Men’s competition, for instance, will see the eight participating sides in two groups, and the best two teams from each group will then play in another round-robin pool. This way, the crowd will get to see more competitive games.”

The organisers of the tournament are also putting in an extra effort this year to reach out to the fans. The tournament will be shown live throughout on local Mumbai channel YOUSCOD 18. The Semi-Finals on 16th April and Finals on 17th April 2011 will be telecast live on Doordarshan and the Finals will be broadcast live on DD along with live running commentary on All India Radio's FM Gold.

Muthukumar added, “We are also using our website – ramumemorial.com – as well as our Facebook page, as essential tools to share photos, results, and news.”

This is also the first year that the US-based side Shooting for Success (SFS) will be taking part in the RMBT. SFS have been a crowd favourite at Mumbai because of their appearances at the Savio Cup. They are considered to be one of the favourites to lift the crown, along with IOB and ONGC.

27th All India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament to tip off in Mumbai

One of India’s most prestigious basketball championships, the All India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament (RMBT), will return in its 27th edition to the Indian Gymkhana in Matunga (Mumbai) from April 10-17th. The tournament will feature some of the best state and club teams and top Indian players from around the country in both the Men’s and the Women’s division.

An added attraction to the team list this year is the American-based club squad, Shooting for Success, who have been attending past basketball tournaments like the Savio Cup in Mumbai for several years now.

Eight men’s teams and four women’s teams will be taking part in RMBT 2011. Once again, the competition will feature a host of international / India stars including Sambhaji Kadam (Services), S. Robinson (IOB-Chennai), Trideep Rai (ONGC), Gagandeep Singh and Amit Parashar (Western Railway), and women’s superstar Geethu Anna Jose (Southern Railway) who has recently received a call-up for a tryout with two WNBA teams.

Participating teams are:

Men:

Western Railway

IOB (Tamil Nadu)

Services

ONGC (Uttarakhand)

Shooting for Success (USA)

Punjab

Maharashtra

Cochin Customs

Women:

Southern Railway

Maharashtra

South West Central Railway

Chhattisgarh

In the Mens’ section comprising of Eight Teams will be made into Two Groups each, top two teams from each group will play Semi-final Super League, and, again, the top two teams, in the Semi-Final Super League will play the finals. Group of 4 teams will play League & top 2 teams will qualify for Semi-Finals. & In the Women’s section it will be Round Robin Basis.

The men's winners will receive the glittering Ramu Memorial Trophy and a purse of Rs. 1 Lakh. The winning women's team will receive Rs. 50 Thousand and the Kapila Khandvala Shield.

In addition, there will be 'Player of the Tournament' awards in the Men's and Women's categories.

Like previous years, the tournament will be played on international standard Teraflex courts and will be held under floodlights in a specially erected stadium. This is being done to reduce injury to the players as well as enhance performances through uninhibited high-profile basketball. As in the past, entry is free for spectators and this is being done especially to promote basketball among students and youth.

The Semi-Finals on 16th April and Finals on 17th April 2011 will be telecast live on Doordarshan and, the Finals will be broadcast live on All India Radio's FM Gold, thru’ a live running commentary.

To add to the excitement, 'Predict the Winners', Slam Dunk and Three-Pointer contests for spectators will be held during the competition, where exciting vouchers and gifts will be distributed.

Ramu Memorial Basketball tournament had virtually become a household name, with people from all walks of life and all ages thronging the venue to witness and cheer top quality basketball being dished out by players of the likes of Haridutt, Mathew Satyababu, Hanuman Singh, Abbas Montassir, Ajmer Singh, Sajjan Singh, Khusiram, Ramkumar, the towering giant Sunil Kumar Panda, Shyamlal, Balkar Singh, C.N.Sharma, Vijayraghavan and host of others.

Check out the tournament's official website - RamuMemorial.com for more details, photographs, live scores, and much more!

Ramu Memorial Tournament ready to take-off

The Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament, a prestigious all India basketball competition now in its 26th edition, is ready to tip off from Feb 21. The tournament is held at the Indian Gymkhana in Mumbai and will last a whole week. It features some of the top (men and women) teams in the country fighting for the coveted trophy.

From the official website:

The hallmark and annual feature of [the Gymkhana's] activities is the Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament, which was first started in the year 1966. Besides, the various tournaments and events that gymkhana organizes, Ramu Memorial has become an Household name in the basketball and sporting circles, not only in the western part of the country, but all over.
In 2009, the Silver Jubilee of All-India Ramu Memorial Basketball Tournament was conducted in a very grand and befitting manner. The most significant aspect and highlight of the tournament was honoring of all former greats of Basketball, who had played an important part in popularizing the tournament, since early 1970s / 1980s.


This tournament is played in a specially erected stadium, having a seating capacity of 5000 spectators and the matches are held under floodlights.

This year's tournament will feature the following teams:

Men:

Western Railway
ONGC
Chennai Customs
Vijaya Bank
Indian Overseas Bank
Services
Punjab
RCF - Kapurtala

Women

Southern Railway
SEC Railway
Karnataka
Aamchi Mumbai

Superstar players such as Talwinderjeet Singh "TJ" Sahi, S. Robinson, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, and many others will be taking part in the tournament.



Held to much fanfare, last year was the Silver jubilee of the tournament, won by Western Railways and Southern Railways in the Men's and Women's competitions respectively.

Indian basketball fans - this is your chance to support and watch some of the best of our country's talent. The tournament will be an entertaining event and be a big push towards promoting basketball in India. DD Sports and All India Radio FM 101.7 have already been partnered for live coverage of the tournament's semi-finals and finals.

See more about the tournament on its official website. I will be posting updates/news regularly.