The Indian Basketball League (IBL) will be held in early 2027. New Delhi: Indian sports has seen this scenario before. A new league comes with ambition, big money, overseas faces, big promises, a multi-city approach and the inevitable question: can it survive in a country where cricket consumes a lot of oxygen?Melburnian Jeremy Loeliger has heard this question before. He actually lived through it.Long before he became commissioner of the Indian Basketball League (IBL), Loeliger was eyeing the game of basketball for relevance in Australia – a market dominated by Australian rules football, rugby, cricket, soccer, established sports giants, passionate fan bases and limited space for more professional competition. This, he says, is exactly why India makes sense.“There are a lot of similarities between basketball, where basketball was in Australia 15 years ago and where basketball is here in India,” Loeliger told TimesofIndia.com ahead of the BUDx NBA House in Delhi, where the eight IBL home cities were announced.The comparison is intentional. In Australia, basketball had participation but not a sustainable professional product. India, he believes, lies at a similar crossroads. “There was passion but no capital. And I think the same is true here in India.”
Initially, the Indian Basketball League (IBL) will include six city teams.
That diagnosis matters because Indian sports are littered with leagues that have struggled to turn novelty into longevity. Even established sports with deep roots struggled for attendance, investment and visibility.The Hockey India League and the Pro Wrestling League both had a seven-year hiatus; The Premier Badminton League was played for five seasons but has not restarted as of 2020. The Premier Hockey League, the Champions Tennis League and the World Series of Hockey are others that started with a bang before shutting up shop.But the IBL pitch is different. He is not trying to outdo cricket.“We’re not selling eyeballs. Not to begin with. We’re selling hearts and minds,” Loeliger said.
What we want is an audience that is really engaged and passionate about our sport, that supports it, that loves it for what it is
IBL Commissioner Jeremy Loeliger
“We’re selling that this is an inclusive product that’s for everyone and that it’s going to be fun from the moment you walk in. We’re not going to have as big an audience as cricket for many years to come. That’s OK.“What we want is an audience that is really engaged and passionate about our sport, that supports it, that loves it for what it is. You don’t always have to play the volume game,” he continued.That may be the most revealing sentence about what IBL is actually trying to build.At a time when sports leagues are obsessed with reach, ratings and scale, the IBL chooses intimacy. Passion over volume. Community above mass market metrics.What basketball thinks it has, however, is something Indian sports may have under-explored: entertainment.
IBL’s eight core cities are Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Pune.
“I think sports entertainment is missing here in India,” Loeliger said.“Yes, there are some sports that do it well, and the IPL is a great example. It’s a great sports entertainment product, but it’s only played for two or two-and-a-half months a year. People want to be entertained 12 months a year.”Here the case of basketball is interesting. Unlike cricket, where physical distance separates fans from players, basketball offers closeness. Noise. Speed. Contact. Theater.“One of the great things about basketball is the proximity to the sport. When you go to a game, you’re sitting there. You can literally feel the players,” Loeliger explained.“You can get a basketball or a basketball player in your lap. There’s no other sport where you can hear the coaches and the players and the referees. So I think that’s one element that makes basketball unique.”
Each team of the IBL team will consist of 12 players with Indian and overseas athletes.
Based on height, the IBL doesn’t just sell sports. It sells an experience. This helps explain some of the league’s structural choices.When the league begins in early 2027, six teams will form the inaugural pre-expansion competition. Each 12-man squad will feature seven Indian players and five overseas professionals, with regulations ensuring local players are not overshadowed. Players will be centrally contracted and paid by the league, with a draft system instead of conventional franchise spending.Unlike many other sports leagues, organizers are in no rush to privatize teams, introduce lavish auctions and mix Bollywood with sports. The eight cities of establishment are Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Pune. The six or more teams that will play the first season will be decided by the fans. This measured approach is unusual in Indian sports, where rapid commercialization often comes before the sport’s fundamentals are in place. Loeliger insists the patience is intentional.
Action from BUDx NBA House in Delhi where the eight IBL Foundation Cities were announced.
“It needs patience, it needs partners, and it needs persistence. And it needs balance. We already have all of those things,” he explained of the mantra behind creating a successful product.Perhaps the project’s boldest assumption is that the Indian basketball audience already exists.“Everybody knows about LeBron (James). Everybody knows that Victor Wembenyama is the next big thing now.”According to him, the problem is availability. NBA games are played in inconvenient time zones. The stars are far away. The fandom is fragmented.“But it’s hard to tune in when the games are on and they end at 7:30 or 8:30, 9 in the morning. So the latent demand is there, but the availability isn’t.”That’s the opportunity the IBL hopes to unlock: prime-time basketball with players from Indian neighborhoods, not just imported stars. But the bigger dream lies beyond the first season. Basketball’s global ecosystem gives it an aspirational path that few Indian sports can offer. “That’s when we find the next Yao Ming or Jeremy Lin. That’s when we find our Giannis Antetokounmpo.”It’s an ambitious claim. But not completely irrational.India already has a basketball youth, a growing street culture, familiarity with the NBA and a lifestyle with the sport. The missing piece is a credible home platform.The High Performance Center in Bengaluru – where 88 professional players currently train – is part of this long-term vision.However, realism remains essential. Infrastructure remains the league’s biggest immediate hurdle, forcing organizers to be patient.“The biggest challenge here is the infrastructure. Having spaces that are suitable for staging the kind of production that we want to give our fans.”Suitable arenas are limited. So the first edition will be played in a caravan format instead of a home and away competition.“Infrastructure is probably the biggest challenge at the moment from a pro game day perspective. But that’s okay, we’ll be playing in a caravan to begin with, not like a home and away. The home and away format will follow in the coming years.”But perhaps the bigger issue isn’t infrastructure—it’s attention. In a country where every new league is ultimately measured against cricket, the IBL is making a different bet: that basketball doesn’t need to win the numbers game immediately, only the emotional one.If Loeliger is right, India doesn’t need to be taught to like basketball. It simply needs a league compelling enough to turn a casual interest into a lasting fandom.
