India to witness School and College Basketball Leagues says Federation

The Basketball Federation of India has announced that the country is going have their own School and College Basketball Leagues (ISBL and ICBL) from 2017 December.

As announced by the Federation, ISBL will be held from 25 December 2017 to 15 March 2018. On the other hand, ICBL will be starting from 18 April to 31 July next year. However, the dates and locations of the Indian School and College Basketball Leagues - National Championship is about to release.

While the School Leagues will have boy and girl category, College Leagues will be divided into men and women groups. The winners of both Leagues from each state will qualify for the Indian School and College basketball Leagues- National Championship.

The objective behind ISBL and ICBL is to increase the basketball participation numbers from a grassroots level which will help in future to develop the National Basketball team. According to the structure of these leagues, it will extend to a period of six to eight weeks where each team have to play only one match per week.

The previous edition of the School and College League have provided top performers to the Federation such as Baladhaneshwar Poiyamozhi, who came from ISBL and was featured in 2017 FIBA Asia Cup along with the forward Muin Bek Hafeez from ICBL.

The League format says that 16 teams will be participating in each League but in case of Union territories there should be eight teams to participate in each group.

All the participants will be will be divided into eight groups. Each team will play total seven matches with others in the same group. The league will follow a knock-out format in both state and national levels. The age limit for the ICBL will be under-25 and for the ISBL it will be under-19.

According to the FIBA (The International Basketball Federation) ranking rules, while the winners will achieve two points, the losing team will have to be satisfied with one point. If any of the teams receive same points, then the goal average (points for/ points against) for all previous games will be considered as a decider.

The prize money for the State Level Champions in ISBL and ICBL will be around $384 (INR 25000). While the first runner-up will receive a prize money of around $230 (INR 15,000), the second runner-up will be awarded an amount of almost $153 (INR 10,000).

Here is the list of the states who are going to organize School and College Leagues.