Three players, one half-court and 10 minutes of relentless basketball – 3×3 is one of the fastest-growing formats of the sport globally, and Tero Entertainment is looking to build a sustainable ecosystem for it in India.
With the launch of 3×3 Quest India 2026, Tero is aiming to take the format beyond a standalone tournament and create a pathway connecting grassroots participation with international competition. The inaugural event in Delhi is being positioned as the starting point of a larger plan involving talent identification, regular qualifiers, FIBA ranking points, international opportunities and, eventually, a multi-city national circuit.
At the centre of that vision is Chandrakant Singh, CEO & Managing Director, Tero India and Partner, Tero Entertainment PCL, who believes 3×3’s relatively low infrastructure requirements can help take organised basketball to players who have traditionally remained outside India’s established basketball centres.
In an exclusive interaction, Singh explains how Tero plans to build a grassroots-to-international pathway, the importance of sending the Quest India winner to the FIBA 3×3 World Series in Mongolia, plans for a national circuit, the infrastructure challenge in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, and the company’s long-term ambitions around the Asian Games and Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
He also discusses why Tero sees music, creators, digital content and youth culture as integral to making 3×3 a sustainable sports-entertainment property rather than simply another tournament on India’s sporting calendar. Here are the excerpts:
myKhel: You have said Tero wants to build 3×3 in India from the grassroots. What does that actually mean on the ground, and what are the first steps you plan to take after the inaugural Quest event in Delhi?
Chandrakant Singh: Grassroots, for us, means building the base of the pyramid, not just staging one event. It starts with school and community-level scouting, structured coaching touchpoints, and giving young players a ranked pathway they’ve never had. After the inaugural Quest event in Delhi, our immediate focus is on formalising a talent identification system, running regular local qualifiers, and building partnerships with schools and academies. We want players engaging with organised 3×3 year-round, not just during a marquee event, so the first steps are about consistency and access, not scale.
MK: India has a huge basketball audience, but there is still a significant gap between watching the sport and actually playing it competitively. How do you plan to bridge that gap through 3×3?
CS: That gap exists because there’s never been a structured, accessible entry point. 3×3 solves this by its very format: it needs just a half-court, four players, and minimal equipment, making it far easier to organise at a grassroots level than traditional basketball. We’re creating ranked, FIBA-recognised competition pathways so casual players have a real reason to compete, not just play recreationally. Combined with our digital storytelling and athlete-as-creator approach, we’re making participation aspirational. The goal is converting passive fans into active competitors by making that first step onto a ranked court simple and visible.
MK: The winner of Quest India will get an opportunity to compete at the FIBA 3×3 World Series in Mongolia and earn official FIBA ranking points. How important is creating this international pathway for Indian players, and what difference could it make to the development of the sport?
CS: This is central to everything we’re building. Indian players have talent but have lacked a credible, ranked route to international competition. Sending the Quest India winner to Mongolia gives players a tangible, aspirational goal and puts Indian basketball on the FIBA ranking map for the first time in this format. It shifts the narrative from “playing basketball” to “competing globally,” which changes how young athletes, families, and even sponsors perceive the sport’s potential. One international appearance can inspire an entire pipeline of players to take 3×3 seriously as a competitive career path.
MK: .Will Tero look at taking 3×3 Quest beyond Delhi and creating a multi-city or national circuit? If so, what would that expansion look like?
CS: Absolutely, Delhi is the starting point, not the ceiling. Our roadmap includes taking Quest to multiple cities and eventually building a genuine national circuit with regular qualifiers feeding into a flagship national event. The exact sequencing will depend on partnerships, infrastructure, and demand, but the intent is clear: a calendar Indian players and fans can follow year-round, not a one-off tournament. A multi-city circuit also lets us surface talent from different regions and build local fan bases, which is essential for the sport’s long-term commercial and cultural sustainability in India.
MK: One of the challenges in Indian sport is that talent from smaller cities often doesn’t get enough competitive exposure. How will you ensure your grassroots programme reaches players beyond the traditional basketball centres? India doesn’t have the infrastructure for a sport like basketball. Are you going to tackle the scarcity of infrastructure in the tier-2/3 cities?
CS: This is a real challenge, and we’re conscious of it. Our approach is to combine scouting drives and grassroots programming in tier-2/3 cities with partnerships that can help bridge infrastructure gaps. 3×3’s format works in our favour here since it needs far less infrastructure than full-court basketball, making it viable even where formal facilities are limited. We won’t solve India’s infrastructure gap alone, but by prioritising accessible formats and working with local partners, we can extend genuine competitive opportunity well beyond traditional basketball hubs.
MK: How do you see Tero working with the Basketball Federation of India and state associations to ensure that Quest complements, rather than competes with, India’s existing basketball structure?
CS: Alignment with the Basketball Federation of India and state associations is essential; we see Quest as complementary infrastructure, not a parallel system. Our goal is to strengthen the broader basketball ecosystem by adding a structured, FIBA-endorsed 3×3 pathway that currently doesn’t exist, feeding interest and talent back into the sport overall rather than competing for it. We’re committed to close coordination on player pathways, rankings, and event calendars so Quest reinforces existing development structures. A credible, sustainable 3×3 ecosystem in India needs collaboration with governing bodies, not a standalone effort.
MK: Do you believe India needs players who specialise in 3×3, or should the sport primarily serve as another pathway for five-on-five basketball players?
CS: Ideally, both. 3×3 is a legitimate discipline in its own right, with its own skillset, pace, and Olympic pathway, so India absolutely needs players who specialise in it. But we also see it as a natural complement to five-on-five, giving players another competitive outlet, additional game time, and a faster route to ranked international exposure. Globally, many athletes move fluidly between formats. For India, having both dedicated 3×3 specialists and 5×5 players using 3×3 as a development pathway strengthens the overall basketball ecosystem rather than dividing it.
MK: 3×3 is already an Olympic sport and will have an expanded field at Los Angeles 2028. Does Tero’s long-term India strategy include developing players and teams specifically with the Olympics and Asian Games in mind?
CS: Yes, that horizon is very much part of our long-term thinking. 3×3’s expanded presence at LA28, alongside its growing profile at the Asian Games, makes this an important moment to build India’s pipeline with those stages in mind. Our grassroots-to-elite pathway is designed specifically to identify and develop players who can eventually compete at that level, not just domestically. It’s a multi-year build, but every element, from Quest’s ranking structure to our athlete development focus, is oriented toward giving India a genuine shot at Olympic and Asian Games representation in 3×3.
MK: Beyond the competition itself, Tero is positioning 3×3 as a combination of basketball, music, creators and youth culture. How important will the entertainment component be in building a sustainable audience for the sport in India?
CS: It’s fundamental, not an add-on. Sport is the core, but the surrounding experience- music, content, creators, and fan culture is what turns spectators into a returning audience, especially with Gen Z. We think of this as entertainment-sports: DJ-led live events, short-form digital content, athlete personal-brand building, and consistent storytelling between events. This is what sustains commercial interest beyond ticket sales for a single tournament. Without that cultural layer, 3×3 risks staying a niche sporting event; with it, it becomes a property people follow, discuss, and engage with year-round.
MK: If we look three to five years ahead, what would success for Tero’s 3×3 project in India look like? Are you ultimately trying to create a regular professional competition, a grassroots-to-international player pathway, or a larger sports-entertainment property?
CS:
Success looks like all three, working together as one ecosystem, not standalone outcomes. We want a regular, credible competitive calendar; a genuine grassroots-to-international pathway producing FIBA-ranked Indian players and teams; and a larger sports-entertainment property with real sponsor, media, and fan engagement. The clearest marker of success will be cultural: when 3×3 in India is no longer described as “emerging” but is simply part of the everyday sporting landscape, with its own stars, fanbase, and self-sustaining commercial ecosystem built from the ground up.
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