All India Advani Memorial Basketball Tournament tips off in Jaipur

Many of the top Men and Women basketball playeres from across India will be in Jaipur (Rajasthan) this week for the 17th edition of the All India Advani Memorial Basketball Tournament (AIAMBT) in the city. The tournament, which is being organized at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), tipped off on Wednesday, April 9 and will conclude with the Finals on April 13th. This edition of the tournament will feature eight Men's teams and six Women's teams representing as clubs or states.

The participating teams are: (via Ekalavyas)

Men

Pool A: Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), North Frontier Railways (NFR Guwahati), Punjab, Rajasthan.
Pool B: ONGC, Indian Air Force, South Central Railway (SCR - Secunderabad), Rail Coach Factory (RCF Kapurthala).

Women

Pool A: Southern Railway (Chennai), Eastern Railway (Kolkata), Delhi
Pool B: Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), South East Central Railway (SECR Bilaspur), Rajasthan.

In the Men's section, Punjab (who were finalists at the BFI National Championship last month) and the talented ONGC side will be favourites to take home the title. The Women's fray could see a fight to the finish between the consistently successful Southern Railway side and SECR from Bilaspur, a team that is sure to feature some members of the Chhattisgarh team which upset Indian Railways in the National Championship last month.

Several top Indian stars, such as Geethu Anna Jose, Anju Lakra, Amrit Pal Singh, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Yadwinder Singh, and more are taking part in the tournament.

The AIAMBT was started in the year 1975 as a tribute to the late Principal of MNIT (formerly known as MREC) Professor RM Advani, but is only in its 17th iteration this year. On April 9, at the tournament's opening ceremony, the event was inaugurated by Ajit Mohan Saran (IAS), Scretary Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt. of India and Ajit Kumar Singh (IAS), Principal Secretary Youth Affairs and Sports, Govt. of Rajasthan.

Check out Ekalavyas for results from the first day of games and the schedule ahead.

Defending champs start with wins as 64th National Basketball Championship tips off in Delhi

The race to fight for India's most prestigious basketball trophy - the National Basketball Championship - got underway in its 64th iteration at the Thyagaraj Stadium in the capital city of New Delhi from Wednesday, February 26th. The eight-day tournament is set to feature 51 total state/unit teams from across India. On the opening day, defending champions Uttarakhand (Men) and Indian Railways (Women) both started their campaigns with decisive wins.

The All India 64th National Basketball Championship for Men and Women is being organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in conjunction with the Delhi Basketball Association (DBA) and support from IMG-Reliance. At the opening ceremony on Friday, Ajit Mohan Saran, the Secretary of Sports for India's Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, was the chief guest. Neeraj Kansal (Secretary of the Sports Authority of India) and Del Harris (former NBA Coach of the Year) were also present as special guests.

Uttarakhand, the tournament's reigning champs from last year in Ludhiana and featuring some of the best men stars in Indian basketball, opened their title defense with a closely contested victory against Indian Railways. After falling behind by six points at the end of the third quarter, Uttarakhand came charging back with a 29-17 run in the final period to outlast their opponents 68-62. Rising Indian big man Amrit Pal Singh led the way with 25 points for Uttarakhand while experienced guard Riyazuddin added 16. Gagandeep Singh scored 20 to pace Railways.

Last year's Men's finalists Punjab also started off the tournament with championship intentions and put on a fantastic, balanced display to overwhelm Andhra Pradesh en route to a 92-44 win. Punjab started the game on a 27-4 run and never looked back.

Indian Railways women have won the last six National Championships. They continued their form in their first game, capitalizing on a relatively inexperienced West Bengal side early and cruising to a 68-40 win.

Meanwhile, last year's Women's finalists Tamil Nadu crushed Maharashtra, starting the game on a 22-2 first quarter advantage and keeping their opponents under seven points in every quarter there-after. The unstoppable Appoorva Muralinath had 26 points for TN, outscoring Maharashtra all by herself. TN defeated Maharashtra 63-20.

Selected Scores

Men

• Punjab (Ranbir Singh 15, Amripal Singh 14, Gurvinder Singh 14, Jagdeep Singh 14) bt Andhra Pradesh (GV Reddy 13) 92-44 (27-4, 27-22, 21-10, 17-8).
  
• Uttarakhand (Amrit Pal Singh 25, Riyazuddin 16) bt Indian Railways (Gagandeep Singh 20, Prakesh Mishra 10) 68-62 (15-15, 13-11, 11-19, 29-17).
  
• Services (Gopal Ram 17, SM Settu 16, Dalip Kumar 13) bt Rajasthan (Prashant Singh 22, Vinod Kumar 10) 101-57 (19-17, 31-9, 26-14, 25-17).
  

Women

• Delhi (Raspreet Sidhu 22, Prashanti Singh 18) bt Karnataka (Kruthika Lakshman 19, PU Navneetha 13) 77-58 (20-17, 17-16, 23-13, 17-12).
  
• Indian Railways (Anju Lakra 13) bt West Bengal 68-40 (25-16, 12-11, 13-9, 18-4).
  
• Tamil Nadu (Appoorva Muralinath 26, Soniya Joy 14, R. Ramya 14) bt Maharashtra 63-20 (22-2, 18-5, 11-7, 12-6).
  

You can find a daily updates of results from the tournament here.

As mentioned above, former NBA Coach of the Year Del Harris is a special guest at the tournament. Along with India's National Senior Men's team coach Scott Flemming, Harris hosted a training session for attending coaches and players at the Thyagaraj Stadium on Thursday, February 27th.