Bahrain basketball team face Saudi in Jeddah exhibition

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national basketball team take on their counterparts from Saudi Arabia today in an exhibition game in Jeddah, as part of both nations’ preparations for the start of the Asian qualification competition for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

The Bahrainis are currently in Saudi for an overseas training camp until November 20, during which they will play the hosts twice. Their second meeting will be on Friday.

Both teams will be getting their qualifying campaigns underway on November 26. The Bahrainis are in Group D and will first play against Iran in Tehran, while the Saudis are in Group C and are set to take on Jordan in Amman. Bahrain has 14 players in their camp, being supervised by NBA title-winning head coach Sam Vincent.

The players are skipper Mohammed Qurban, Maitham Jameel, Hesham Sarhan, Mohammed Kuwayed and Subah Hussain from defending back-to-back league champions Al Ahli; Mohammed Hussain, Mohammed Ameer, Ahmed Salman and Nader Shaker from Manama; CJ Giles, Mohammed Buallay and Ali Jaber from Al Najma; and Ali Shukrallah and Ali Rabea from Muharraq.

Following their opening fixture, the Bahrainis play the Iranians once again at the Khalifa Sports City Arena in Isa Town on November 29. Both games are part of the first window of action.

Bahrain’s next two fixtures will be in the second window, scheduled for February 24 next year against Syria and then against Kazakhstan on February 27.

The final window in July of 2022 will see their last two games of this qualification first round, against Syria on July 1 and Kazakhstan on July 4.

For this first round of qualifiers, 16 teams from Asia/Oceania are divided into four groups of four teams to play in home and-away games. The three best-placed teams from each group will advance to the second round.