Tamil Nadu aims to clinch double on home soil

The Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA) had already displayed its ambition in bagging the double by roping in the Serbian duo of Milan Opacic and Aleksandar Virijevic as the head coach and assistant coach respectively for both the teams. 

The teams have been grouped into two levels, level one and level two. Level one comprises ten teams in both men’s and women’s, divided into two groups of five each.

Level two for men consists of the rest of the participating teams, divided into three groups of five each and one group of six. The lower level in the women’s category will have four groups, each having four teams in it. 

In the men’s event, Tamil Nadu is pitted alongside Punjab, Haryana, Indian Railways and Gujarat in Group B while in the women’s event, it is placed in Group A with defending champion Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. 

The championship is bolstered by the participation of various Indian internationals, who have featured under different age groups. The home side boasts of a few notable names in the men’s category with Akilan Pari, Prasanna Venkatesh and Muin Bek making a formidable squad. 

Pushpa, who was part of the India Under-16 team at the FIBA Asia Cup, is a part of the 14 member women squad. Tamil Nadu will open its campaign against Haryana in the men’s category while in the women’s it will square off against Madhya Pradesh. Both the matches have been scheduled for Wednesday.