Hosting events has sparked growth in Indian basketball

NEW DELHI (FIBA Asia) - India has slowly become an emerging hotbed of basketball in Asia, and much of it is because of their active hosting of several major international competitions.

India, in fact, has hosted three FIBA Asia women's events in the past 2 years alone: the FIBA U16 Women's Asian Championship 2017, the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2017 and FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship 2018.

They were impressed with our potential as well as the infrastructure that was made available for the events,
- K Govindraj

"Basketball history was made in Bengaluru and as a sports administrator from this very city, personally it’s indeed a dream come true for me," said Basketball Federation of India (BFI) President K Govindraj.

In all three events, the Indian women were able to sweep their games, amassing a total of 15 wins in as many matches. Consequently India rose to the zenith of Division B in each of those competitions and earned promotion to Division A at all three levels: U16, U18 and senior women.

"The FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship was the fourth major (including Asian Qualifiers) event hosted by the city in the last 15 months. They were impressed with our potential as well as the infrastructure that was made available for the events," Govindraj said. "FIBA Asia awarded this event after witnessing our two previous successful organizing capacity."

On the Men’s side, India hosted three FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Asian Qualifiers fixtures in Bengaluru.

In addition, 3x3 Basketball has seen quite some growth in India this year. The city of Hyderabad hosted one leg of the 3x3 World Tour 2018 and built a team which became the first Indian team to reach the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final (Team Delhi 3BL, at the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Bloomage Beijing Final 2018). BFI also supported the private promoter 3BL to launch a professional 3x3 league with stops in India.

In order to further grow the development of 3x3, BFI confirmed to FIBA that any player can participate without restrictions (other than the avoidance of double public subsidies) in 3x3 competitions organised in accordance with the FIBA Internal Regulations.

Last but not least, the 10th Basketball Without Borders Asia Camp from May to June of this year brought together the top 66 boys and girls players of the entire continent.

More than enabling the Indian audience to get exposed to high level basketball, what hosting these events underscores is the active participation of India in Asian basketball. This has, in turn, spurred noticeable growth in the game and has opened opportunities for local talents to flourish.

With these developments, India has further highlighted itself as a prime mover in Asian hoops, and the country has definitely shown that establishing strong initiatives and linkages with international basketball entities can really blaze trails for future generations of Indian players.

FIBA