India Hosts Asia Cup U-18 Men’s Basketball Tournament After Qatar Shift Nagpur: For the first time since 2004, India will host the Asia Cup U-18 men’s basketball tournament, scheduled to take place from August 13 to 23. The 11-day event will be held at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex in Ahmedabad, marking the first time Gujarat’s capital city will host an international basketball championship. The tournament, originally assigned to Qatar in July, was relocated to India due to the ongoing conflict in West Asia. The World Basketball Federation (FIBA) requested India to take over the event, citing the unstable security situation in the region. Shaktisinh Gohil, president of the Gujarat Basketball Association, explained that the decision was influenced by Ahmedabad’s status as the host city for the 2030 Commonwealth Games and its confirmed bid for the 2036 Olympics. “With these major international events on the horizon, the president and secretary of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) decided to allocate the Asia Cup to Gujarat,” Gohil told The Times of India. This will be the first international basketball championship to be held in Ahmedabad. The shift to India also aligns with the city’s growing prominence in sports. Ahmedabad will host the World Cup qualifiers for the Indian men’s team in July, further solidifying its role as a key venue for international basketball. The last time India hosted an Asian championship was in 2022, when the women’s meet was held in Bengaluru. While women’s international competitions have been a regular feature in India’s calendar, the men’s Asia Cup in any age category has been rare for the Basketball Federation of India (BFI). Historically, India has hosted the U-18 men’s Asia Cup twice: in Kolkata in 1998 and Bengaluru in 2004.#india #ahmedabad #asia_cup_u18_men_basketball_tournament #fiba #gujarat_basketball_association
