BAHRAIN’S top basketball clubs Manama and Muharraq will clash with the visiting Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in a pair of exhibition contests headlining the upcoming Ninth Bahrain-Philippines Goodwill Basketball Games 2019 on January 3 and 4 at Zain Basketball Arena in Um Al Hassam. It will be held under the patronage of Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) president Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa.

Reigning national champions Manama will be the first to take to the court against the Elasto Painters on January 3.

Manama will be relying heavily on their leading talents such as Ahmed Abdulaziz, Maytham Jameel, Hussain Shaker, Mohammed Hussain, Mohammed Ameer and American professional Wayne Chism.

Professional

The exhibition match will be extra special for Chism, who twice played for the Elasto Painters in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) professional league in 2014 and 2016.

Elasto Painters will face Muharraq on the evening of January 4. The Arad-based squad, like Manama, have themselves a line-up filled with star Bahraini players, including Bader Abdulla Malabes, Ahmed Hassan Aldurazi, Mohammed Hassan Aldurazi, Kadhem Majed, Ali Abbas, Mohammed Juma’a, Ali Shukrallah and American professional and former NBA player Sean Williams, who has also played in the PBA but with a different team.

Both exhibition games are scheduled for a 7.30pm tip-off.

The Elasto Painters, coached by veteran tactician Carlos “Caloy” Garcia, will be spearheaded by the likes of star players James Yap and Beau Belga. The complete line-up of the visiting squad will be finalised following the annual PBA Rookie Draft set for next Sunday.

The Goodwill Games are being organised by The Hooperz Sport Events in cooperation with members of the local Filipino community and the BBA.

Tickets to the Goodwill Games will be released soon. For further information contact 34414926 or 33934798.

The first-ever Goodwill Games was held in July of 2003, when it was known as the Bahrain-Philippines Basketball Friendship Tournament.