Dubai: Two players from the UAE under-20 national basketball team have been selected by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) to join the training camp (Basketball without Borders), to be organised by the FIBA and NBA in Shanghai, China, from July 5-8.
Talal Salim of Al Nasr club and Rashid Nasser from Al Wasl are the two players who will represent UAE in the training camp which will include the best youth players in Asia.
They will be trained by American players from the NBA.
"This is an excellent achievement for UAE basketball. To get two players selected showed that basketball has developed in recent years," said Esmail Al Gergawi, chairman, UAE Basketball Association, in a press conference held yesterday.
Al Gergawi claimed that UAE was the only GCC nation to have two of its players selected to join the training camp next month.
The two players who attended the press conference said they were very pleased to be selected for the training camp in Shanghai.
"This is a great honour, to represent my country in the presence of the best players in Asia. I hope to benefit from the training camp to raise my standard," said Salim. Nasser said the training camp came at a very opportune moment before the Asian Championships in Japan at the end of next month.
The FIBA selected 53 players from 17 Asian countries for the training camp in Shanghai.
The nation-wise break-up of players is as follows: China 12, South Korea 6, Japan 5, Kazakhstan 5, Iran 4, India 3, Taipei 3, Kyrgyzstan 3, 2 players each from the UAE, Jordan and Lebanon and 1 player each from Qatar, Syria, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Singapore.
Meanwhile, the UAE national team will start preparations for the Asian Championships from Sunday with an internal training camp in Dubai under Serbian coach Zoran Zobisivic.
The camp will continue until the squad's departure for a training session in France from July 10-23.
The team will leave for Japan on July 25 to take part in the Asian Championships that run from July 28 to August 5.
The UAE under-20 team will start preparations for the GCC youth tournament in Sharjah from August 19-25. A training camp will be held in Sharjah on July 1. There will also be training camps in Turkey and Tunisia from July 25 to August 14.
