43rd Arise Steel Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship to tip off in Hyderabad from 1st October

Hyderabad, 30^th February 2016: The 43^rd Arise Steel Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls 2016 is all set to tip off at the Sports Authority of Telangana (SATS) Indoor Stadium in Saroornagar in the city between 1^st to 7^th October. The championship is being organised by the Hyderabad District Basketball Association under the auspices of Telangana State Basketball Association (TBA) and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).

The Sub-junior or ‘mini’ nationals is annually held for boys and girls of the age 13 or younger and is the premier national level tournament at this entry level age group. As many as 22 matches per day will be played on a league cum knockout basis inside the two indoor courts within the stadium complex.

While the Championship will tip off on the morning of 1^st October itself, the opening ceremony will be held later in the afternoon from 4 pm onwards. Shri Bandaru Dattatraya, Honourable Union Minister for Labour and Employment will be the chief guest of the occasion. Other guests of honour will be Shri G Kishan Reddy (MLA and Floor Leader, BJLP Telangana), Shri A Dinakar Babu (IAS, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Sports Authority of Telangana) and Shri Aadhav Arjuna, Managing Director, Arise Industries and Agency Private Ltd.

“I would like to thank our title sponsors Arise Steel for making this event possible, and for their continued patronage towards Indian basketball. The stadium is fully ready and we have arranged for accommodation, travel and food for all the participating teams and officials,” said Mr Norman Isaac, BFI executive committee member and General Secretary of the Telangana Basketball Association.

National level basketball is returning to the city of Hyderabad for the first time in 13 years, after the 2003 Senior National Basketball Championship. In fact, the last time a national level tournament was held in unified Andhra Pradesh was the junior national championship in Anantapur back in 2007.

Madhya Pradesh is the two time defending champions in the boys section while Chhattisgarh is the defending champion in the girls section from the 42^nd edition held in Puducherry earlier this February. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana teams had finished 5^th and 10^th in the boys and girls sections respectively.