After a phenomenal performance by the Indian Women at the recently concluded Cricket World Cup, it’s now the country’s basketball players who did us proud this week. The Indian women’s basketball team defeated Kazakhstan 75-73 in a nail biting Division B Final of the FIBA Asia Cup 2017, in Bengaluru on July 29. India is now promoted to Division A for the next edition of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup.
In the thrilling game, which went on till the final minutes, Maharashtra player Shireen Limaye clinched the title for India, with her last minute winning shot. The 2017 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, held from 23rd to 29th July, was the qualifying tournament for FIBA Asia at the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Spain. Previously before this edition, the tournament was known as the FIBA Asia Championship for Women. In light of the Indian team’s remarkable performance, Basketball Federation of India president K Govindaraj has announced a cash prize of Rs 10,00,000 for the Indian squad.
At Centre for Social Research, we have been driven towards the cause of promoting women’s sports. Our recently initiated project, under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao program, is targeted at empowering girls in Haryana by increasing their involvement in sports. We firmly believe that sports is a fantastic way to not only ensure overall positive physical and mental well being of girls, but provides an excellent platform for the causes of gender equality and empowerment. We are extremely proud of our basketball team, for such a resounding performance, and hope to see many more sportswomen coming up in the near future.
