Kerala moving forward with Basketball League plans

The Kerala Basketball Association and thier Commercial Right partners Starting Five Sports Management Pvt Ltd have decided to move forward with their plans for a Kerala based regional Basketball League during 2026 on the lines of the Super League Kerala model in Soccer with international players.

Speaking from Tokyo, Mr P.Jacob, Director Starting Five Sports Management has confirmed that the KBA has granted an in-principle approval based on discussions held with the President & Secretary of the Basketball Federation of India who have been supportive of this State led initiative.

"'Though the contours of the new League is still in the planning stage with a franchised model, steps have been initiated by Starting Five Sports Management to work on setting up School level activations to help broadbase the Sports in a more professional manner"' said Mr Jacob. He further added that Starting Five have also had preliminary dialogues with a leading Mumbai based agency to structure the business model of the League and also to work on the road-map for the new League.

Sources close to the development plans made it clear that there would be an announcement soon on the way forward and that Starting Five has started reaching out to international partners for support in thier plans. Players who are of Indian origin playing in International Basketball leagues worldwide are targeted to give an International flavour & touch to the new league format. In order to ensure that the Coaching levels are also enhanced, search for young and talented Coaches and players across various countries including Australia, US & Japan have also begun and the response has been very positive.

The Mizoram Super League which has completed 10 seasons has been an eye opener to Starting Five Sports Management in terms of how local Basketball can be given a serious facelift through such such intensely competitive match formats and has created a serious Basketball culture in the North Eastern State.

A detailed announcement in this regard is expected in early November.