Kathmandu, August 1

After the successful organisation of the second Nepal Basketball League and first edition of the women’s league, the Nepal Basketball League and Play for Deprived Children Nepal today announced the NBL 3X3 East and West Basketball Tournament.

The NBL 3X3 East Basketball Tournament will be held between August 23-28 in Dharan, Biratnagar and Birtamode. At least 10 teams will compete in each city and top two will make it to the finals, which will be played in Birtamode, informed the organisers at a press meet today. The winners will receive Rs 10,000, while the runners-up will get Rs 25,000.

“As promised during the NBL, we are taking the sport out of the Kathmandu valley and our main motive behind organising these tournaments is to promote basketball across the country,” said PDCN Chairman Arun Karki. “We are beginning with 10 teams in each of the three cities in the first phase and we are confident it will grow in the years to come,” he added.

Karki, however, said organising basketball tournaments was not easy. “We have already organised two editions of the NBL and one Women’s NBL but it’s never easy in basketball. The sponsors do not take basketball seriously, like football or cricket. But we had promised to take tournaments out of the valley and we are doing it in a small scale this year,” said Karki. “We have around one month left to the tournament and we are hoping to get support from corporate houses,” he added.

Namit Bahadur Thapa, tournament co-ordinator of NBL, echoed Karki’s words and said they wanted to promote the sport. “We are beginning it with three cities each in eastern and western parts of the country and we are getting requests from other cities as well,” Thapa said.

The NBL and PDCN have coordinated with Dharan Basketball Association, Biratnagar Basketball Academy and Birtamode Basketball Association to organise the tournaments. Prakash Lingden, coordinator of the tournament in East, said they were organising the event by collecting money from local level. “In the absence of sponsors, we requested business community in Birtamode to help for the tournament and we were able to collect the required budget of Rs 500,000,” said Lingden.

NBL board member Subarna Malakar said the tournament would be a great platform for players to showcase their talent. “The events in East and West regions of the country are like talent hunt and it can help the talented players break into the NBL and national team as well,” he added.

The organisers are yet to finalise the dates for the tournament in Western region. “We are closely working with Dhangadhi Premier League Chairman Subash Shahi for the tournament in West. We are planning to organise the tournament in November, while the number of teams and formats will be the same as in the East,” Karki said.