DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 8 (MExN): The meeting of the Annual General Council of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) was held on February 6. As an affiliate, the Nagaland Basketball Association (NBA) also attended the meeting held in Bengaluru.
The NBA was represented by two members— Zasivi Meyase, Honorary Secretary and Sentiningsang Longkumer, Joint Secretary, NBA.
The NBA informed that a major outcome of the meeting was a decision to do away with the existing national championship format by reintroducing the once abandoned ‘zonal’ system.
As per the new system, zone-wise competitions will be first held before culminating with the annual senior national basketball championship where the top 16 teams from across the country will compete.
The country’s basketball map will be structured into 5 regional zones for both men and women, namely— North, South, East, West and North-east. Each zone will be composed of competing states, for example, the north-east zone includes Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Assam.
The top 3 men’s teams from the north, south, east and west zones will make it to the national championships, while only 1 team from the NE zone will be eligible.
It was added that the Railways, Services teams and the host state will directly qualify for the national championship. If the hosting state (team) makes it to the top 3 in its zone, the 4th placed team from the host state’s zone will have the chance to qualify for the national championship. As for the senior women’s in the NE zone, the top two teams will qualify for the national championship.
For the junior competitions, the same format will be applied with a slight variation.
