BAHRAIN wrapped up their preparations last night for the Fiba Asia Cup 2021 Western Region Pre-Qualifiers, which get underway today at Zain Basketball Arena in Um Al Hassam.
The nationals take on Sri Lanka in their opening game of the competition. It is scheduled for a 7pm tip-off.
The Bahrainis’ final line-up for this week’s pre-qualifiers includes Ahmed Aziz, Hussain Shaker, Mohammed Ameer, Maytham Jameel, Bader Abdulla Malabes, Ali Asghar, Ali Shukrallah, Hesham Sarhan, Subah Hussain, Hassan Gerashi, Mohammed Buallay and Mohammed Kuwayed.
The team is coached by Salman Ramadhan.
Prior to Bahrain’s match today, Palestine will face off with Bangladesh at 5pm.
The Western Region Pre-Qualifiers also include Saudi Arabia, who are not in action today. These five nations will be vying for four spots in the main qualifying event for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021. There, they will be joined by another four teams from the Eastern Region Pre-Qualifiers to complete a 24-nation line-up, with 16 teams already with berths in the main qualification phase.
Bahrain held practice yesterday at the tournament venue and they were visited by Bahrain Basketball Association president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, who wished them success in the qualifiers.
Shaikh Isa also gave them some words of encouragement and expressed his confidence in the players.
Meanwhile, the other visiting national squads also conducted practice yesterday at Zain Arena.
There will be two games played each day until Saturday.
Tomorrow, Saudi Arabia take on Palestine in the early game while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka battle in the late fixture; and then on Thursday Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia play at 5pm with Bahrain and Bangladesh facing off at 7pm.
The penultimate day of action on Friday sees Palestine face Sri Lanka and then Bahrain take on Saudi. On the last day, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia go head to head at 5pm and then Bahrain and Palestine battle at 7pm.