Bengaluru, Oct 18 (IANS): Vijaya Bank on Tuesday announced that the third edition of the Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball tournament for men will begin on Wednesday.

The tournament will be held at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here from October 19-23, under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India and the Karnataka State Basketball Association, according to a release.

The tournament is being held in the memory of late Shri Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty, a longstanding former Chairman of Vijaya Bank, who was instrumental in the growth of the bank through the 1960s and 70s.

Matches will be played every evening from 5 p.m onwards in a league-cum-knockout basis. There are seven teams in the fray in this tournament, divided into two groups. The top two teams from each group will progress to the semi-finals followed by the final.

This edition of the tournament will feature some of the nation's top men's club sides such as hosts Vijaya Bank, Cochin Customs, Indian Bank, Integral Coach Factory (ICF)-Chennai, Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT)-Chennai and Karnataka State team (‘President's 11').

Two time runners-up ONGC, Dehradun were scheduled to participate but withdrew at the last minute due to injuries sustained by some of their main players during the just concluded Asia Champions Cup Tournament.

The following are the 12 international players who will be participating: Indian Bank (Hariram - Senior India; Moses Jeevananth- Junior India; P Baladhaneshwar - Junior India), Vijaya Bank (Arvind Arumugam, Rajesh Uppar, Sanjay Raj - Senior India; S Karthickeyan- Junior India), Kerala State Electricity Board (Sreerag N Nair- Junior India, Arun Harikumar- Youth India), Cochin Customs (Eudrick Pereira, Basil Philip, Monish Wilson- Senior India).