The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Harlem Globetrotters to entertain fans in Chennai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 12, 2006

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Sport - Basketball

Harlem Globetrotters to entertain fans in Chennai

Special Correspondent

Chennai: The Harlem Globetrotters, an American icon synonymous with family entertainment and great basketball skills, will be in Chennai from November 18 to 20 to entertain the fans of the game.

The Trotters has signed a promotion agreement with SportzIndia Management for India and Singapore. The tour was planned last year, but dropped. But this time, the team will be here for three days to exhibit its skills at the SDAT multipurpose indoor stadium in Chennai.

The ball jugglers and slam dunkers are visiting India after a lapse of 16 years. When asked why such a big gap, the Trotters executive vice-president, Jeff Munn, said: "We would like to make it an annual event. We are ready to come here even twice a year, including a summer show in May-June. Now we have found an active and enthusiastic partner for Indian promotion. So we would like to have more tours in the future and do our best to improve Indian basketball too." He said that his rapport with R. Anil Kumar, country head of SportzIndia, was excellent and was looking forward to the Indian visit later this year.

The Globetrotters organisation represents 80 long years of breaking down barriers, acts of goodwill, in charitable donations as well as in community outreach programmes, and a commitment to the fans that goes well beyond the game. It is the most influential squad in the world, getting inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

M. Venkatesh, associate secretary, Basketball Federation of India, said that the BFI fully backed this Trotters tour because it wanted to raise the standard of the game in India. The American team, one of the three units, will play in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi too. Anil Kumar is supported by a team comprising Ranjit Karthikeyan, financial advisor, Ajith Varghese, communications director, Ashok Verghese, president, Hindustan Sports Foundation, and Jaisankar Menon, a former international.

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