India will be hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics 3×3 basketball Qualifying Tournament scheduled to take place in March 2020. The announcement was made by the International Basketball Association (FIBA). The event will be organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI).
“It is a great honor to host such an important event in India and to see our players give it all on home soil for a berth to the first-ever 3×3 Olympic tournament,” BFI President Govindaraj Kempareddy said.
The tournament will feature a total of 40 teams consisting of 20 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams. The tournament will be held under the patronage of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). The venue of the tournament will be announced by the BFI in the coming months.
“Following the successful organization of two consecutive FIBA Women’s Asia Cups in Bangalore by the BFI, we are looking forward to organizing now a key 3×3 event in a country where our new Olympic discipline already has a strong fanbase.” he added.
A total of six teams will qualify for the Tokyo Olympics with 3 men’s and women’s teams. The fact that 3×3 Basketball games will make debut in the Summer Games next year.
A total of eight teams will be participating in the tournament, six out of which will be qualifying from India’s Basketball Qualifying tournament.
“Our positive experience with YKBK at the FIBA 3×3 World Tour Hyderabad Masters 2018 and the excellent collaboration between FIBA and the BFI played an important role in the selection of the host by the FIBA Central Board, ” FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said in a statement released by the world body.
Olympic qualification criteria:
India will get to field a team in both Men’s & Women’s qualifying tournament. And the qualifying event will have three places in each category up for grabs i.e, only six teams will be booking their berths for the Tokyo Olympics.
Despite being the hosts of the next year’s Summer Games, Japan will only get one automatic selection for the Summer Games i.e., either men’s team or women’s team. The hosts will have a higher chance of qualifying in both men’s and women’s teams owing to their teams’ rankings with the men’s team currently ranked ninth while women’s teams currently ranked 11th. But if the rankings don’t favor, then whichever side does not qualify automatically will have to go through the qualification process.
The 3×3 Basketball event (games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court) was first played Internationally at the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore and it was well cheered by the fans across the world.
Since then, the 3×3 event had started being played across the globe. Finally, in 2017, the 3×3 event was added to the 2020 Summer Olympics.
