Two Indian teams to play in FIBA 3x3 World Tour in Beijing

Two Indian Men's teams - representing the cities of Bengaluru and Chandigarh - will be taking part in the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Beijing Masters on October 15-16. Each team will feature four players (three starters and a substitute) for this tournament, which will feature a total of 12 3x3 teams competing for the top prize.

'Team Bangalore' is the squad which represented India at the 2015 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers in Colombo earlier this month. By securing the gold medal, they were able to qualify for the Beijing Masters. Despite their nomenclature, the team consists of players from several other states/cities of India outside of Bengaluru.

'Team Chandigarh' is the squad which appeared as 'Punjab Warriors' at the 2014 NBA Jam, and their victory in the National Finals in Pune last December booked their ticket to the Beijing Masters.

The 12 teams are divided into four pools of three teams playing in a round-robin first round against their two respective pool opponents. The top-two placed teams from each pool advance to a standard knock-out round which starts at the quarter-finals stage. The two best teams qualify for the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final, which will be staged in Abu Dhabi on 15-16 October 2015. Apart from this main event, a dunk contest and a three-point shootout contest will also be held. Read more here.

FIBA 3x3 World Tour Beijing Masters Participating Teams

• Pool A: Novisad Alwahda (UAE), Zheng Zhou (China), Bangalore (India).
  
• Pool B: Ljubljana (Slovenia), New Taipei (Chinese Taipei), Jinan (China).
  
• Pool C: Doha (Qatar), Jakarta (Indonesia), Beijing (China).
  
• Pool D: Tokyo (Japan), Wukesong (China), Chandigarh (India).
  

India team rosters

• Team Bangalore: Basil Philip (Kerala), Rajesh Uppar (Karnataka), Siddhant Shinde (Maharashtra), Jeevanantham Pandi (Tamil Nadu).
  
• Team Chandigarh: Khusmeet Atwal, Arshpreet Bhullar, Arshdeep Dhillon, Rajveer Singh.
  

Schedule for India’s league games 15th August (all timings IST)

• 2:40 PM: Chandigarh vs Tokyo (Pool D).
  
• 3 PM: Bangalore vs Zheng Zhou (Pool A).
  
• 4 PM: Bangalore vs Novisad Alwahda (Pool A).
  
• 6 PM: Chandigarh vs Wukesong (Pool D).
  

The FIBA 3x3 World Tour was first launched in 2012. The former winners are San Juan (Puerto Rico, 2012), Brezovica (Slovenia, 2013) and Novi Sad (Serbia, 2014).

India win gold at South Asia 3x3 basketball championship, qualify for FIBA 3x3 World Tour

India's senior men’s team has been crowned champions in the 2015 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers at Gateway College in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Sunday, August 2. Facing familiar opponents Colombo Sri Lanka Reds in the finals, whom they had lost to a day earier in the league stages, India showed great heart and courage to dominate the Islanders at home 21-10.

The day began with India dominating Nepal 20-10 in a must win last league match to qualify to the semifinals as the second seeded team. In the semis, India continued its strong form to beat Sri Lanka Blacks 18-10, before powering through to a 21-10 finals victory.

An excited Siddhant Shinde said after the gold medal finish, “We did it for the 1.24 billion people of India. We hope this inspires the youth of the nation to take up basketball.” As South Asia winners, the four man squad comprising Shinde, Basil Philip, Rajesh Uppar and Jeevanantham Pandi, has now qualified for the 3x3 World Tour which will be held on 15th and 16th August 2015 in Beijing, China. 

The Indian senior men’s basketball team participated in the 3x3 South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 1st and 2nd August 2015. The four member team comprised Basil Philip (Kerala), Rajesh Uppar (Karnataka), Siddhant Shinde (Maharashtra) and Jeevanantham Pandi (Tamil Nadu) flew out of Bengaluru to Colombo on 31st July morning, and will return to Bengaluru on 3rd August 2015.