Indian Bank (Men) and Southern Railway (Women) win 2019 All India Basketball Tournaments in Coimbatore

Two of the most prestigious invitational basketball in India came to a conclusion on Saturday after six days of high-level hoops action in Coimbatore. Indian Bank (Men) and Southern Railway (Women) won the 54th Nachimuthu Gounder Cup and 18th CRI Pumps Trophy respectively after a couple of close finals. The tournament was held from May 27 - June 1 by the Coimbatore District Basketball Association (CDBA) at the VOC Park Basketball Court.

Indian Bank from Chennai defeated Income Tax in the finale 74-64 to secure the gold medal.

In the women’s category Southern Railway (Hubli) managed to maintain the lead from the beginning over South Central Railway and won the match and trophy by two points 57-55.

India Army defeated Indian Air Force 72-62 for third place in the men's division, while last year's women's champions KSEB finished third with a 46-33 win over Arise Steel.

There was Rs.1.85 lakh prize money and Cup for men and Rs.1 lakh and trophy for women’s teams. Customs (Chennai) and KSEB (Thiruvanathapuram) won last year's iterations of the tournament.

South Central Railway (Women) and ONGC (Men) win 2016 All India Basketball Tournaments in Coimbatore

Continuing an annual tradition, two of India's top invitational club basketball tournaments were held in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, featuring top talent from across the country. The 15th CRI Pumps Trophy (Women) and the Nachibuthu Gounder Cup (Men) concluded at the VOC Park Corporation Sports Complex courts in Coimbatore on Wednesday, June 1, with South Central Railway (SCR) of Secunderabad and ONGC from Dehardun winning the Women's and Men's titles respectively.

In the Women's CRI Pumps Trophy final, SCR trailed for most of the way to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) team from Thiruvanathapuram, and had build up a double-digit cushion. But SCR staged a brilliant comeback behind a 28 point outburst by M. Gayathri to secure a late lead and clinch the 51-48 win.

In the Men's Nachibuthu Gounder Cup final, veteran leaders and young stars of India's international squad came together to overpower Chennai's Income Tax en route to a 78-55 win. ONGC's Vishesh Bhriguvanshi led all scorers in the final with 28, while Amrit Pal Singh - who plays for Tokyo Excellence of the Japanese D-League - scored 18. Trideep Rai added 17 to ONGC's offensive firepower. Rikin Pethani and Ramkumar both added 18 for Income Tax in the loss.

Tipping off on May 27th, the Nachibuthu Gounder Cup made a comeback to Coimbatore basketball after eight years, replacing the All India PSG Trophy. Eight leading Men's teams - ONGC, KSEB, Integral Coach Factory (Chennai), Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala), Income Tax, North Frontier Railway (Guwahati), Kerala Police and Coimbatore District Basketball Association (CDBA) - vied for top honours.

The CRI Pumps Trophy for Women was held simultaneously, in which the reigning champions Chattisgarh, runners-up KSEB, Southern Railway, SCR, North Frontier Railway, South East Central Railway (Bilaspur), Central Railway (Mumbai), and CBDA took part.

Last year, Indian Army won the PSG All India trophy while Chhattisgarh secured the CRI Pumps title in Coimbatore.

Income Tax and Southern Railway win 2015 All India Jeppiaar Basketball Trophy

Several of the top club teams in India headed down south to Chennai to take part in the fifth installment of the Jeppiaar Trophy All India Invitational Tournament, a championship that brought together 11 teams in the Men's and Women's divisions to the Jeppiaar Institute of Technology (JIT) in the city. After six days of basketball featuring some of the best present and future stars in the country, Income Tax (Men) and repeating title winners Southern Railway (Women) ended the tournament as champions after the final day on Saturday, March 14.

The participating teams at the 2015 Jeppiaar Trophy were:

Men

Pool A: Vijaya Bank, KSEB, Sathyabama University, Income Tax.
Pool B: Indian Army, Air Force, JIT.

Women: Southern Railway, JIT, South Central Railway, South Eastern Railway

In the Men's final, Income Tax defeated Vijaya Bank 67-59. Income Tax's Vinay Kaushik scored 22 points in the final for his team's victory and was named the Player of the tournament. The Women's tournament was only held in round-robin fashion in the group stage. Southern Railway finished undefeated in the Women's group and were thus named champions, with South Central Railway and South Eastern Railway finishing second and third respectively.

The last iteration of this tournament was held back in 2013, with IOB (Men) and Southern Railway (Women) emerging as winners.

Before the tournament, JIT created a preview video about the tournament and the Men's and Women's home teams. You can check it out here.

ONGC & Southern Railway won Golden Eagle Blue Star All India Tournament in Chennai

Blessed with some of the most dominant India international player’s on their roster, Dehradun’s ONGC side blazed through the Golden Eagle Blue Star All India Invitational Basketball Tournament in Chennai, defeating Customs and Central Excise (Kochi) in the tournament's Men's final on Thursday, August 22nd. The Women's final was also held earlier on the same day, and home side Southern Railway added another feather to their successful cap by sweeping past Secunderabad's South Central Railway.

Eight Men's teams and six Women's squads, divided into two groups each, took part in the six-day tournament, which was held at the JJ Stadium in Chennai.

India's national squad Center Amrit Pal Singh continued his development as a superstar anchor in the middle, scoring 29 points in dominating performance in the final to lead ONGC to a 76-63 win. India's captain Vishesh Bhriguvanshi added 16 points for the winning team. ONGC were able to withstand Customs and Central Excise's duo of Monish Wilson (21) and Eudrick Pereira (17) in their victory.

Southern Railway - who have been the glowing spark in India women's basketball led by the usual suspects Geethu Anna Jose and Anitha Paul Durai in recent years - had little trouble in cruising past South Central Railway 62-43 as they brought some cheers from the home crowd in their victory. Anitha had a game-high 23 points in the Women's final.

The Men's winners (ONGC) took home a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, while second place (Customs and Central Excise) were rewarded Rs. 60,000. Women's winners (Southern Railway) also won Rs. 75,000 and runners-up (South Central Railway) Rs. 40,000.

The group stage of the tournament was played in a league format, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the knockout stages. The semi-finals were held on Wednesday. Amrit Pal Singh (22) and Bhriguvanshi (18) led ONGC to a 64-50 win over home side IOB. In a high-scoring second men's semi-final, Customs and Central Excise defeating Indian Army (Delhi) 89-80. Eudrick Perira (20), Monish Wilson (19) and Basil Phillip (18) led the winning side.

In the Women's section, Southern Railway entered the final by defeating Western Railway 65-49. Manda Meshram (20) and Jilna Jose (18) led South Central Railway to a 83-65 win over Eastern Railway (Kolkata). Madhu Kumari had a valiant performance with 30 points for Eastern Railway in a losing effort.

The finals were broadcast live on DD Sports in India. Another special shoutout here to Gopalakrishnan R., who did an incredible job in covering this tournament on SportsKeeda every day.

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.