Masters on show at Inter-Club Basketball Tournament
The Masters Basketball Sri Lanka (MBSL) will revive its activities with the Inter-Club Basketball Tournament 2021 for men and women of 35 and above age group. The three-day tournament is scheduled to take place from March 26 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Colombo.
The tournament is played with the total participation of 35 teams under four age categories for men of above 35, 40, 45 and 50 and two age categories for women above 35 and 40. Each game would consist two 10-minute halves with a two-minute break.
“Why we decided to hold an event like this at this particular juncture, is that most of our senior athletes were looking for some event to participate and get going with their sporting activities. For the last two years, there wasn’t any complete basketball tournament. We are proud to achieve this milestone in a quite short time. Our main aim is to support and develop Sri Lankan basketball. We tried to organise a coaching camp, which was dropped due to pandemic. We are planning to look after some of our retired players in need,” stated Gayath Jayasinghe, the President of MBSL and Group CEO of Gaja Holdings.
Jayasinghe, a former national basketball player spearheaded a dive to revive basketball activities, which were held up for almost a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His establishment, Gaja Sports, earlier came forward to sponsor basketball teams and events and the upcoming event will be one of their main competitions in focus.
“We’re conducting this tournament at a challenging time. We are thankful to many people, the authorities, the Minister of Sports, who blessed us and also all the participating teams. When we announced, we didn’t expect this much of teams to participate. By now, with more days to follow, more than 75 percent of the slots have been already filled,” explained said Clifford Surendran, the Treasurer of MBSL.
The sixth edition of the event, is expected to attract leading teams and star players to welcome Master’s basketball after long pause, as sponsors Gaja Sports will provide the playing kits for all the teams.
On the first day of the event matches will begin from 2.00pm and continue until 10.00pm while in the two remaining days matches are set to begin at 8.00am and go on until 10.00pm. Strict health guidelines and regulations will be followed throughout the three days of the tournament which will culminate on March 28 with the finals.
MBSL was inaugurated in 1983 and has participated in Pan Pacific Masters Tournament in Gold Coast, Australia and has won trophies in the Pan Pacific Masters Games. MBSL also has been conducting the Mini Basketball Training Programme for the past five years in order to promote basketball among children.