Women’s league to make debut in 3BL Season 2

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 25

Twelve teams, including Chandigarh Beasts, will compete in the second season of the FIBA 3x3 Pro Basketball League Indian Subcontinent (3BL), which will be held across four different cities of Punjab and Chandigarh from August 2.

“The second season of the 3BL will feature 12 teams, including men and women,” Punjab Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi said here today. “The teams will compete in nine rounds over a period of two months,” he added.  

It is for the first time that 3BL will be introducing a women’s 3x3 basketball league, which will be conducted simultaneously alongside the men’s league, said the organisers. 

“In an effort to provide a platform to Indian female basketball players, a professional women’s league will be brought to India for the first time in 3BL Season 2,” said league commissioner Rohit Bakshi.

“The women’s league in 3BL will provide an opportunity to the female basketball players to explore a professional career in basketball and further improve the sporting environment for women’s sports in India,” Bakshi added. 

Apart from Chandigarh, the matches will be held in Amritsar, Mohali, Jalandhar and Patiala. 

Sodhi, meanwhile, said the government aimed to promote basketball in Punjab, which has produced some of the best talent in the sport in recent years.   

“Basketball occupies priority in the Sports Department’s scheme of things and it is the sincere endeavour of the state government to give a fillip to the sport so as to ensure that Punjab produces maximum champion players,” said Sodhi.

The minister also said it was a matter of great pride for Punjab that two of its star players Amjyot Singh Gill and Palpreet Singh would be part of this league.

Bakshi informed that by conducting the league over nine rounds, 3BL would help increase the points for the Indian federation (BFI) in the FIBA 3x3 rankings — a yardstick for getting a berth in the qualification round for the 2020 Olympics. 

He further said the winners of the men’s rounds would qualify for spots on two FIBA 3x3 World Tour Masters and three Challengers events.

3x3 Basketball 

It is a 10-minute high speed basketball game. It officially became an Olympic sport in June 2017 and will be introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Games and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham