The much-awaited National Basketball League for men would be launched by the Basket Ball Federation of India (BFI) in October 2008.

The top six teams in the ongoing 58th Senior National Championships in Pondicherry would play in the league with the option to choose two players each from other state teams or overseas.

A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of BFI affiliate units late on Wednesday night, BFI secretary general Harish Sharma said.

The league, which he said would be "near professional", will be played over a period of one month and the BFI Technical Committee would finalise format and other details.

"We are identifying the venues. It may be two or three. The technical committee will finalise the format," he added.

He said sports channel ESPN had in principle agreed to telecast the matches.

Though the league may fall short of India's Serbian coach Aleksander Bucan's vision for a full-fledged professional league it would still be a move in the right direction to make Indian basketball competitive.

Defending champions Services, Uttarakhand and Punjab will feature in the inaugural league, having booked their berths in the semi-finals. The other two places would be decided after the matches later on Thursday.

However, the women's league had not yet been formulated considering the fact that there was a wide gap between three top teams -- Railways, Delhi and Chhattisgarh -- and the rest. The BFI had earlier planned to launch the league by this year end as part of its plan to popularise the game in the country.

Sharma also said the 2008 Senior Nationals would be held in Surat and the next edition in Punjab. Bhilai would host the Youth Championships in September next year.

On Bucan's tenure, Sharma said the BFI and Sports Authority of India had already recommended to the government for extension of his contract by two-and-half years. "We have already decided to extend his tenure."

He also added that the BFI is "satisfied" with Bucan, who was appointed coach of the Indian team on a six month contract in May last.

"We are happy with his knowledge of basketball. You can't expect results in just six months. We are confident that he will give good results," he added.