Basketball: A total of 27 teams – 22 men’s and five women’s – have registered for the interdepartmental basketball tournament that begins Monday September 28.

Teams from different departments under ministries and corporations in the country will take part in the 18-day tournament at the Swimming Pool Complex in Thimphu.

The runners up of last year’s tournament, Bhutan Olympic Committee (BOC), are one of the favourites. The team’s captain Ugyen Tshering said that his team is looking forward to get to the finals this year.

Ugyen Tshering said that because of the busy schedules of the players, they were unable to practise as a team even for a day.  But he reassured that individually all the players are in constant touch with the game since all the players play basketball on a daily basis.

“Personally, for me, there’s only one threat to our team – the winners of last year’s tournament. But you can never predict anything in a game. So we hope to win this time,” said Ugyen Tshering.

Bank of Bhutan’s (BoB) Passang Norbu said that the departmental tournament is a good platform for team building among the staff. “It’s not often that we get to meet and greet each other,” he said. “This tournament should give us some quality time to work together and know each other better.”

Passang Norbu said that his team has been undergoing vigorous training for the last three weeks. “We have been playing with other teams to build our team spirit.” He said. “It’s a good mixture of strong and moderate players. This competition should be a very competitive one.”

Bhutan National Bank (B) will take on Department of Revenue & Customs in the first game at 5 pm at the Swimming Pool Complex.

Younten Tshedup