27th Federation Cup tips off in Bangalore today!

The 27th annual edition of one India's biggest club basketball competitions - the Federation Cup All India Basketball Tournament - tips off this year in the city of Bangalore on Wednesday, January 30, 2013. A total of 17 top club sides from across India (Nine Men's teams and Eight Women's teams) have qualified for this tournament, which will be held at Bangalore's famous Sri Kantaveera Basketball Stadium.

The tournament is being organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Karnataka State Basketball Association (KSBBA). The finals of the tournament are slated to be held on February 3.

Defending their title this season will be Punjab Police, last year's surprise champions in the Men's division in Kochi. Women's champions from last year Southern Railway will not be at the tournament; instead, many of their players will be playing for their home states. Fans will be out cheering for the home teams, which will be Vijaya Bank for the Men's division and Karnataka Women.

There are special eligibility rules for the Federation Cup, which are based on the top eight Men’s and Women’s teams from the previous year’s National Basketball Championship, which ended in Chennai in December 2011. For the Men’s championship, the champion club/unit in each state’s internal basketball championship will be invited to play in the Federation Cup. For the Women’s championship, it is the state/unit teams themselves (usually) that take part.

KSBBA secretary K Govindaraj said “The indoor stadium is ready to host the best players from around the country, and all the players who featured in the National championships will be in attendance here.”

Via this article on SportsKeeda by Siddarth Sharma, here is the list of participating teams in their groups this year:

Men

Group A: Punjab Police (Punjab), Customs & Central Excise (Kerala), Indian Air Force (Services), Captain's Club (Delhi), Vijaya Bank (Karnataka).

Group B: Indian Overseas Bank (Tamil Nadu), South Central Railway (Andhra Pradesh), Jind (Haryana), ONGC (Uttarakhand).

Women

Group A: South Eastern Railways (Bilaspur), Delhi, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh.

Group B: Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra.

This is the first time in 24 years that Karnataka is hosting the Federation Cup. The winning teams will win Rs. 1 lakh, while the first and second runners-up will go home with Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 respectively.

Check out a more in-depth preview of the tournament by Siddarth Sharma here.