Himalayan White House International College is organising the first Inter-college (U-18) basketball tournament beginning from Monday.

The eight-team league-cum knockout tournament will be held at the White House premises in Koteshwor. White House, Gyan Niketan, Insight Vision, Trinity, Golden Gate, Times International, Triton and Xavier International are in fray for the title. The first four teams are pitted in Group ‘A’ with the rest in the other pool.

The organisers believed the tournament will help revive college basketball. “There was a time when we continuously organised such events and which drew sizable crowds,” said White House Chief Executive Officer Yuvraj Sharma on Sunday. “But the game is gradually losing its control even in Kathmandu. Popularity of other games might have caused it. We have come up with this tournament and hope to continue it in the future as well with a modified format,” said Sharma adding the tournament was going to get bigger in coming days.

“Our target is to give preference to collegiate basketball because it is the backbone of domestic basketball throughout the world. We will come up with home and away basketball in coming days to give it even bigger shape, “ informed Sharma.

National basketball team captain Sadish Pradhan, also the organiser, said the tournament is organised to get into the bigger picture of grassroots basketball. “Our main target is to make this tournament bigger with involvement of more players who will later fill into the national team. This will involve only the players from Grade IX to XII and this will ultimately benefit Nepali basketball as a whole,” said Pradhan.