panaji good news comes in torrent it may not be true with everyone but the goa basketball association gba will certainly not disagree for a sport and association that has long been a punching bag in good times and bad there seems to be a sudden change in its fortunes the change in guard at the helm of affairs was the new beginning but the recentlyconcluded state basketball championship at don bosco in the city was the one that provided for plenty of hope to be honest i was floored not just with the response for the tournament but the manner in which it shaped up everything simply fell in place said a delighted gba president fr ralin de souza a record 29 teams entered their names for the championship out of which 27 turned up one team in each category dribblers men and margao basketeers women opted out and just as the gba had hoped for most of the lusofonia games probables including stalwarts like daley fernandes aakash madgavkar amish jain ashish bhupal shiva and lambert godinho defied a rival association of goan basketball diktat to make their presence felt and what a tournament it was the crowd for the final was fantastic you could see a healthy rivalry between margao and panaji and there were fans who wanted more of such events said fr ralin who since taking over the gba a little over two months ago has had to duck several bouncers more is certainly on the way ponda has made inquiries about staging a similar tournament don bosco oratory dbo has linedup a intercollege tournament for next month and then margao and siolim will take turns to organize an all goa tournament in december and january respectively thats not all the basketball federation of india bfi has thrown its weight behind the gba and allotted them a cheque of rs 37000 the first instalment for development of basketball in the state need to hear more listen to fr ralin himself saying we had written to mahindra group who have a tie up with the nba and they have had a word with us i will be going to mumbai for a meeting now if only the gba could convince the sports authority of goa sag and goa olympic association goa that they have the interest of the sport at heart and nothing else the ghost of the past could be well and truly buried