Wheelchair basketball tournament held in PuneÂ
Wheelchair Basketball Association Maharashtra (WBAM) held a successful tournament at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana Basketball court on 25 and 26 March 2023. The matches were organized to provide players with the much-needed practice and to select the Maharashtra Wheelchair Basketball teams for the next National Championships, expected to be held in the second half of 2023.
WBAM is a registered body since 07 March 2017, with its office in Pune, and aims to promote Wheelchair Basketball Sport in Maharashtra. The Maharashtra Men’s team, comprising mainly of ex-Army personnel from the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre (PRC) Khadki, Pune, was formed in 2014 and has won all six National Championships conducted so far from 2014-2019. On the other hand, the Maharashtra Women’s team, formed in 2017, has won the last two National Championships held in Erode, Tamil Nadu (2018), and Mohali, Punjab (2019).
The tournament witnessed three Men’s teams and two Women’s teams, including players from Mumbai, Pune, Amravati, and the PRC at Khadki. The matches were played on a round-robin basis, and the results in brief are as follows:
In the Men’s section, Maharashtra A Team beat Maharashtra ‘C’ Team 33-15, and Maharashtra ‘B’ Team beat Maharashtra C Team 20-15. In the final match, Men’s Maharashtra A Team emerged victorious over Maharashtra B Team with a score of 26-17.
In the Women’s section, Maharashtra “B” Team defeated Maharashtra “A” Team 17-11 in the final match.
The tournament witnessed the presence of chief guests Sunil Ramanand, IPS, Addl DGP & Abhay Chhajed, Pune City District Congress Committee, along with other dignitaries. New players were seen in action, and some of them will be part of the Maharashtra Wheelchair Basketball Teams for the next National Championships. The matches also witnessed players who represented the Indian Wheelchair Basketball teams in action.
The tournament’s success was due to the extensive support received from PYC and the organizing committee, including Prasanna Choudhari, President Wheelchair Basketball Association, Maharashtra, and other members, volunteers, and supporters who worked selflessly to make the two-day event a grand success.
