Twenty eight teams vie for honours in Mercantile cager tourney

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

BASKETBALL: Twenty eight teams have entered the Mercantile Basketball Tournament this year including seventeen men's teams and eleven women's teams which will be worked off at the Otters Aquatic Basketball, courts, Colombo. The tournament is being organised by the Mercantile Services Basketball Association of Sri Lanka.

The teams have been grouped into four divisions with three groups in division `A', two groups in division `B' `C' and `D' divisions. All the preliminary round matches will be conducted on a round robin basis.

Teams- `A' division: group `A' Sampath Bank, Dialog Telekom, David Peiris Motor Company, group `B' Delmege Group, Akbar Brothers and DFCC Group.

Hatton National Bank, David Peiris Motor Company, SriLankan Airlines and reigning champions Seylan Bank are the teams who will vie for honours in the `A' division women's category.

`B' division: Amana group, Ranawana Security Services, MAS Holdings, Nations Trust Bank, Hatton National Bank and SriLankan Airlines.

`C' division: Seylan Bank, HSBC, Dialog Telekom (B), Ceylinco Group.

`D' division: Nations Trust Bank `B', SriLankan Airlines (B), Global Payments, Mobitel, City Group, DFCC Group `B', Mas Holdings and Eagle Insurance.

Sampath Bank were last year's `A' division champions while Delmege finished as runners up. Seylan Bank were the women's `A' division winners while their closest rivals Hatton National Bank ended up as runners up.

Nations Trust Bank bagged the `B' division title while Akbar Brothers who are in the `A' division fray this time were placed second last time.

Today, SriLankan Airlines women will take on David Peiris Motor Company at 5.00 p.m. while Dialog Telekom will confront Ceylinco Group and Seylan Bank will meet HSBC in the `C' division.

In a `D' division match DFCC Group `B' will take on MAS Holdings `B' while Nations Trust Bank will meet SriLankan Airlines in their first match in the division `B' tomorrow.

Mobitel will play against Nations Trust Bank, Ceylinco Group will confront HSBC while MAS Holdings will battle out Amana Group on September 20. On September 21 DFCC `B' Group will take on Eagle Insurance, Mobitel will meet SriLankan Airlines in a `D' division fixture and Ceylinco Group will take on Seylan Bank in the `C' division.

The women's semi finals are scheduled to be worked off on October 3 and the men's `D' division semi finals will be on October 4, `C' division semi finals will be played on October 6, `B' division semi finals will take place on October 8.

The `A' division semi finals will be worked off on October 9, the top team in the group `A' will take on group `B' runners up while Group `B' winners will meet group `A' runners in the other `A' division semi final.

The women's final and men's `D' division final will be on October 10 while `C' division final will be played on the following day. The `A' and `B' division finals are scheduled to be worked off on October 12.