• by Karl Greenberg , December 14, 2009

Forget about cricket. The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) says that with 4 million active hoops participants, the sport is the fastest-growing in India. Hoping to capitalize on that, the National Basketball Association (NBA) is launching its first-ever online and mobile sites, sponsored by Reebok and HP. The Web site will contain games, video highlights, select Hindi content, player blogs and original columns from two India-based NBA journalists.

WWW.nba.com/india, will web cast a live game on Thursday mornings in India during the regular season. The mobile site, which is available on smartphones at m.nba.com/India, shows NBA news, scores and standings.

Two of India's leading sports journalists, Ayaz Memon of Daily News & Analysis (DNA) and Sahil Sharma, formerly of the Hindustan Times, will contribute columns throughout the NBA season. The Web site will also feature blogs from NBA stars Baron Davis of the L.A. Clippers, who led youth clinics in Bangalore and Mumbai this past July, and Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns, per the NBA.

The league is also running a grassroots program, similar to programs it is doing in other Asian countries and working with the BFI to develop a fan base through a separate Web site.

The BFI co-branded site will promote weekly live telecasts of NBA games that will be broadcast in India on ESPN and Star Sports on Friday and Saturday mornings. The site will also have TV schedules and game matchup information. The NBA says some 40 games each week will be available online as well as via the League's NBA League Pass Broadband.

The NBA has launched rich-media sites streaming games in a number of countries, including the NBA.com/China, launched in 2002; NBA.com/ Taiwan, which launched a year later; and NBA.com/HongKong in 2006.

The league says there are now 12 international Web destinations, including ones for Brazil, Spanish-speaking countries, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.