Basketball: The Coco Cola Interdepartmental Basketball Tournament that was supposed to begin yesterday has been deferred to October 1, as the required equipment has not arrived.

The tournament’s organiser, Sonam Dorji of SD Events said that since the tournament’s official banners and logos of the teams were not delivered to them, the tournament was postponed for a couple of days.

Eight more teams have registered this year taking the total participating teams to 27 from 19 last year. Sonam Dorji said that the number of participating teams could have doubled but since most of the invitations were not shared with all the interested individuals within the departments, many missed the opportunity.

In order to provide equal opportunities to all the participating teams, the organisers this year have decided that a team can have a maximum of only two national or A-division players on the squad.

Sonam Dorji said that the decision was taken unanimously during the team captains meeting on September 21. “Having too many good players in a single team make the game boring,” said Sonam. “We want to provide equal opportunities to all the teams.”

The tournament is dedicated to the 60th birth anniversary of The Fourth King. Teams from different departments and corporations in the capital will take part in the 18-day long tournament at the Swimming Pool complex.

The tournament is organised with support from Coca Cola, Bhutan Basketball Federation and Bhutan Olympic Committee.

Younten Tshedup