Indian Sports Calendar in 2023: Major events to look forward to in October post Asian Games

Shooting, handball and football teams are scheduled to take part in Olympic qualifying tournaments.

The month of October post the conclusion of Asian Games 2023 promises to be a busy affair for Indian sports with several major events lined up this month in the Indian sports calendar. Several sporting disciplines have the Olympic qualifying tournaments lined up followed by the all-important ongoing ODI ICC cricket World Cup being held in India.

Badminton

After a three-week hiatus, the BWF World Tour tournaments will resume with the BWF 500 Finland Open. Two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu will spearhead the Indian contingent at the tournament. She finished quarterfinalists at the Asian Games 2023 and will look to gain valuable ranking points for Paris Olympics 2024.

• October 10-15: Arctic Open (Ongoing)
• October 17-22: Denmark Open
• October 24-29: French Open

Cricket

The ICC cricket world cup is scheduled to be held for one and a half months in India. A total of 10 teams will be plying their trade in the mega tournament. India started off their campaign with a massive win against former champions Australia and will be looking to win their third ODI World Cup title.

• October 05-19 November: ICC Cricket World Cup (Ongoing)

Football

The Indian men's football team will take part in the Merdeka Cup alongside Malaysia, Palestine and Tajikistan. In the later part of the month, Indian women's team will play in the 2nd round of Paris Olympics 2024 Asian qualifying tournament.

• October 13-17: Merdeka Cup
• October 26-01 November: Paris Olympic 2024 Asian Qualifying Tournament

Handball

A total of 11 teams clubbed into two groups are scheduled to take part in the tournament. Top two team from each group will qualify for the knockouts and the team winning the tournament qualifies directly for Paris Olympics 2024. India is placed in group A alongside Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, UAE and China.

• October 18-24: Asian Men's Olympics Handball Qualifiers

Hockey

A total of six teams - India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand are scheduled to take part in the women's Asian champions trophy 2023. Indian women's hockey team failed to qualify for the finals of Asian Games 2023 and lost a chance to qualify for Paris Olympics but ended their campaign on a bright note winning the bronze medal.

• October 27-05 November: Asian Women's Champions Trophy

Shooting

After a successful Asian Games 2023 campaign, the Indian shooting contingent will head to Changwon, Korea for Asian Shooting Championships. This tournament is a Olympic qualifying event with two quota places in each event available.

• October 22-02 November: Asian Shooting Championships 2023

Table Tennis

Top Indian paddlers Harmeet Desai, Manika Batra, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manav Vikas Thakkar will look to gather world ranking points in the two WTT Contender tournaments scheduled this month in Muscat and Antalya.

• October 08-14: WTT Contender Muscat
• October 16-22: WTT Contender Antalya

Tennis

The tennis season is entering its final stages on the ATP World Tour will few ATP 500 events scheduled for this month. Post the Shanghai Masters held in the first week, there are a total of four ATP 500 tournaments scheduled to be held across Europe and Asia this month.

• October 16-22: Japan Open (ATP 500)
• October 16-22: Stockholm Open (ATP 500)
• October 23-29: Swiss Indoors (ATP 500)
• October 23-29: Vienna Open (ATP 500)