An already historic month for Indian basketball – after the NBA’s first-ever visit to the country – continues, as Federation Internationale de Basketball (FIBA), the world’s governing body of the sport, announced that the first ever 3×3 Olympic basketball qualifiers will take in India in March 2020.

The event, which will be making its debut at Tokyo 2020, is a form of basketball where two teams of three compete against each other with just one basketball hoop, as opposed to two in the standard 5v5 format and has been a part of the Youth Olympics since 2010. This format, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is the largest urban team sport in the world, which was a major contributing factor in its inclusion in the Olympics. 3×3 basketball will be making its Olympic debut in 2020 alongside karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing.

The recent success of the nation in hosting two FIBA Women’s Asia Cup and FIBA 3×3 World Tour Masters Hyderabad Masters 2018 has been a huge forward for India in basketball. “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,” said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis.

Basketball Federation of India President Govindaraj Kempareddy was also expressed his joy after winning the bid. “It is a great honour 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,” he said.