Surat bros help Guj net nat basketball

SURAT: In Gujarat, you associate Bhavnagar with basketball, a city that has produced maximum players representing the state. But when Basketball Federation of India (BFI) wanted to give the prestigious senior national basketball championships to Gujarat for the first time, it chose Surat.
Diamond city slam dunked the event because of its _maldar' people.Or rather one family of basketball players the Maldar brothers now settled in Antwerp. They have doled out the entire Rs 60 lakh needed to fund the championship.
Without this money, Gujarat State Basketball Association would not have been able to host the championship. Ironically, the Maldars are originally from Bhavnagar, but chose Surat because of its superior infrastructure.
Of the four brothers Kishore, Anil, Ramesh and Pankaj only Kishore took to table tennis and represented Gujarat, while the other three represented the state in basketball. "We wanted to give something back to the sport in our home country," Pankaj Maldar told TOI on the sidelines of the inauguration of the championship at Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay indoor stadium on Wednesday.
President of the tournament's organising committee Shaktisinh Gohil says, "Although we are holding the event now, Gujarat had in fact pitched for the championship five years ago with help from Maldar brothers."
The hosts have set up an _Olympic-style' village at Amroli on the outskirts of Surat where the players have been housed with all facilities. Pankaj and his brother Ramesh Maldar flew in from Antwerp specially for the inaugural function.