New Delhi, June 8 (IANS): The Indian Basketball Players Association (IBPA) officially started its functioning with an inaugural meeting held at the Indian Medical Association hall here.

The meeting was attended on Sunday by some of the well known basketball legends of the country. The list included several Arjuna awardees, Dhyan Chand awardees, Asian all-star player, former Indian captains and a number of international and national players.

The members nominated Sajjan Singh as the president, while Jayasankar Menon, former Asian All Star Basketball player, will be the general secretary and Ashok Sharma, national player and FIBA commissioner, will be the treasurer, according to a release.

Abbas Moontaisar will be the chairman, while Manmohan Singh and Suman Sharma will be vice chairmen.

Sajjan welcomed this noble initiative to promote basketball but cautioned all the members of IBPA not to end up into politics of any kind.

Sheeba, the former Indian captain said: "We should bring the legends to the coaching centres to showcase their signature moves to the kids to improve the fundamentals of the game. It will also increase the interest of the kids to follow the game more."

Prasanna Jayasankar, former Indian captain, said the players are always looking for this kind of platform to air their views.

Jayasankar Menon, the Asian All Star and former Indian skipper thanked everyone who rendered support to this initiative and requested to provide commitment to achieve the objective of IBPA.