Pondicherry Basketball Association (PBA) will host the Federation Cup after more than two decades, in the third week of January 2020.
The last time Puducherry conducted the event was in 1995, which saw Punjab Police bagging the honours in the men’s section and Indian Bank (Chennai) finishing second. In the women’s category, Southern Railway and Central Railway emerged first and second respectively.
Speaking to The Hindu on Tuesday, V. Ragothaman, treasurer, Basketball Federation of India and secretary, PBA, was confident of his team doing a good job. “We will do a grand job as usual. We (PBA) have conducted 22 National championships in several categories, from sub-juniors to seniors, from 1991.”
This time, three venues have been earmarked, with the main matches being staged at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The other two new stadiums are government-controlled — one by Central and the other by State.
The Federation Cup will witness the top eight teams from the senior Nationals held at Bhavnagar, Gujarat from January 5 to 12, in action, apart from the host.
In the last edition at Noida, Punjab won the men’s title while Indian Navy finished second. In the women’s section, Eastern Railway emerged triumphant and Tamil Nadu was the runner-up.
The teams:
Men: Punjab, Services, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Railways, Haryana and Puducherry.
Women: Railways, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, Punjab, Delhi and Puducherry.
