Former basketball players, referees honoured

Mumbai, Jan 29 (PTI) Administrators, players, refereesand journalists of yesteryear, who made significantcontribution to basketball in the country, were felicitatedduring a function here.

G M Sampathkumar (administrator), S K Subramaniam ofChennai (referee), Gulam Rasool Khan (player), PriscillaFernandes (player) and senior journalist V Srivatsa werefelicitated by the organisers of the Savio Cup-Don Bosco AllIndia Basketball tournament here last night.

Posthumous awards were given to Shubha Puthran (player),Dr K Muthukumar (international referee), V C Narayan (Coach)and Javed Akhtar (former player and journalist).

Personalities related to Maharashtra basketball -- M VAras (coach), Esmero Figueiredo (international player/coach),Fr Orlando Rodrigues (administration/organiser), Iqbal UmarQuershi (coach), Prakash Yelgulwar (administrator) were alsofelicitated on the occasion.

The recipients were felicitated by Arjuna Awardees likeKushi Ram, Abbas Montasir, Hanuman Singh, Ajmer Singh, SajjanSingh, and Ram Kumar. Former hockey ace Mir Ranjan Negi wasalso present on the occasion.

Vice-president (Corporate Affairs) of United Phosphorous,the sponsors of Savio Cup, Sundar Balasubramaniam said effortswere on to rope in a Kazakhstan team for the next edition ofthe tournament.