The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Four women’s teams and twelve men’s teams from Paro, Gelephu, Thimphu, Phuentsholing and a women’s team from Sikkim, Phoenix, are taking part in the Winter Basketball Championship in Phuentsholing.
The men’s team are divided in Pool A: Puenchas, Cousins, Garudas, Unameus, Tie Breakers and Mazakos, and Pool B: AWPL, Slow Backers, Thazeys, Jumpers, The Arrows and Gold Rags. The women’s pool consists of one pool: Pheonix, Dusters, Black Widows and Team Thimphu.
The open tournament is being organized to engage the youth in sporting activities during the winter vacation. Clover Events in association with Tropical Topping are the organizers. With no financial sponsorship from any organization, the tournament organizers are using the entry fee of Nu 6,000 per team (men) and Nu 5,000 per team (women) as budget for conducting the tournament.
An organizer, Karma Phuntsho, said, “For the fair and smooth progress of the tournament, we have brought trained officials of Bhutan Basketball Federation (BBF) all the way from Thimphu and it is going to be a professional one.”
Including the travel allowance and daily allowance for the officials, it is estimated that the organizers will spend Nu 128,000. For this, the organizers have sought the help of the business community in Phuentsholing.
The winner of the men’s tournament will walk away with prize money of Nu 40,000 and runner’s up will get Nu 20,000. Likewise, the winner of the women’s tournament will get prize money of Nu 20,000 and runner’s up will walk away with Nu 10,000.
The first match of the tournament was played between Puenchas Vs Cousins on January 21. In the women’s tournament, the first match will be played between Phoenix Vs Dusters, followed by Black Widows Vs Team Thimphu on January 23.
The tournament which began on January 21 will conclude either on January 27 or January 28. The matches on January 25 are most likely to be rescheduled as the Election Commission of Bhutan has asked the organizers to not conduct any matches till the election period for Thromde is over.
