Punjab and Railways will attempt to defend the men’s and women’s titles respectively in the 63rd National basketball championship to be staged at the Gurunanak Dev Stadium here from December 28 to January 4.
The tournament, to be played on a league-cum-knockout basis, will feature 25 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams.The knockout will start with the pre-quarterfinals on January 2.
The groups: Men: Group A: Punjab, Services, Kerala, Delhi, Karnataka; Group B: Tamil Nadu, Railways, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh; Group C: Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh; Group D: Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal; Group E: Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan; Group F: Maharashtra, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry.
Women: Group A: Railways, Delhi, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab; Group B: Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh; Group C: Madhya Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat; Group D: Rajasthan, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal; Group E: Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand.