Local Basketball League gets bigger and better

The SportingLions Basketball Premier League (SBPL) is underway for the second consecutive year at the Lions Municipal Complex in Santa Cruz. The League, which commenced last week, is played over nine weekends.

The tournament has grown to 20 teams and has commenced on the back of the completion of the Sporting Lions Basketball Premier League U-14 and U-16 for Boys and Girls.

With the addition of the bonus point for a 35 points or more margin of victory, the intensity of the game has increased and teams play till the last minute to attain those bonus points.

Some of the top players playing in the league include state player Zoheb Khan, Mumbai University captain Vignesh Iyer, Russhabh Kalbhor, Sanket Kalbhor, Nikhil Ayre, Sagar Chauhan and Rohan Waigankar.

“The tournament is a welcome boost to basketball enthusiasts all over the city. Normally, we get together and play only for fun during the so there is no improvement in our game but with the tournament, and us having to play for nine weeks, we have organised practice to work on our game and improve ourselves,” Aditya Sundaram, a player whose team Chinagate will meet Falcons on Sunday in their second match.

Basketball is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and India is quickly catching up to the trend and NBA India is working towards building the sport in India. SBPL wants to create a platform for basketball players in the city to showcase their skills over a period of time, hence, the league structure.

“Basketball tournaments are generally for a few days and on a knockout basis this leads to only a few teams playing many matches, the rest just play a game or two, lose and wait for the next tournament. SBPL will give everyone a chance to test themselves against other teams and over a
period of time,” Rohit D’souza, the tournament organiser said.

The tournament is approved by Maharashtra State Basketball and the organisers hope the Maharashtra team will benefit from the SBPL. The talent on display is regarded as good and competition intense but the with the league being over a two months teams are learning to adapt and pace themselves while keeping themselves fit and that has benefited the players as they have to maintain a healthy lifestyle besides the benefit to the teams in general.