BAHRAIN take on hosts Egypt tonight in their opening game of the 18th Arab Basketball Championship, taking place in Cairo.
The contest is scheduled for a 9pm tip-off at the sports hall of the Sixth of October City at the Egyptian capital.
The Bahrainis arrived in Egypt yesterday for this under-16 team event. The travelling delegation was headed by Bahrain Basketball Association (BBA) vice-president Nasser Al Qaseer.
Team official Ghassan Karouni represented the national team at the official pre-tournament technical meeting, held at the teams’ hotel. At the gathering, present were officials from all the other participating teams and the organising committee.
They discussed the tournament schedule as well as the team rosters and the eligibility of all participating players. They also determined the uniform colours each team will be wearing in their respective match-ups.
Presiding over the meeting were high-ranking executives from the Arab Basketball Confederation and the Egyptian Basketball Federation.
Six teams are taking part in the tournament, including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Bahrain and Egypt.
The opening round will be played in a single round-robin, at the end of which the top four teams move on to the semi-finals. The winners of those games clash in the title contest, scheduled for the tournament’s concluding day on Tuesday next week.
Following their game today, the Bahrainis next face off with their Tunisian counterparts tomorrow at 6pm. They then play their third game of the competition on Thursday against Lebanon at 4pm. Friday will be a rest day for all teams.
On Saturday, Bahrain take on Saudi Arabia at 6pm, and then on Sunday play their final preliminary phase contest against Algeria at 4pm.
Upon arriving in Cairo yesterday, the Bahrainis went straight into training under Serbian head coach Vanja Gusa.
The team made their final preparations for the start of the tournament and went over their game plan against Egypt for their opening clash tonight.
Bahrain are competing in the Arab championship with a squad of 12 players, including Ammar Yousef, Hassan Aziz, Nasser Anzoor, Imran Abdulla, Ali Mahmoud, Ali Al Ajmi, Ammar Jassim, Abdulqader Salah, Khaled Nabeel, Ebrahim Mohammed, Abbas Basri and Mohammed Abdulla.