By Ila Ananya
We were extremely excited when the All India Football Federation (AIFF) launched the first-ever ongoing Indian Women’s League (IWL) in Delhi. And while we don’t really see a lot of extensive coverage of basketball in India, we’re now even more excited about the two international women’s basketball events that are all set to happen here this year.
It’s been seven years since India hosted major international basketball events, but the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has decided that the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) will host both the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, and the FIBA U-16 Women’s Asia Cup. This comes after extensive reports about the state of basketball in India, with players beginning to argue that a professional league will help to turn things around (hopefully this will also be for women).
According to reports, FIBA decided to take into consideration the BFI’s request to hold a major event based on the increase in on-court quality of the Indian national teams for the last two years.
The FIBA Women’s Asia Cup is going to be held in Bangalore from between 23rd July and the 29th, and most of the top teams are going to be participating — 14 teams have confirmed that they will be playing, and two more are yet to confirm. The reigning Asian women’s champions are Japan, and they’ll be playing Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Chinese Taipei and Philippines in Division A of Women’s Asia Cup. Six other teams, including India’s women’s team will be playing in Division B, hoping to be promoted to Division A for the next FIBA Women’s Asia Cup. This is going to be followed by the U-16 event (the one that was held in Pune back in 2009). This time it’s going to be held in Telangana from October 22nd to the 28th.