NEW DELHI, India (26th FIBA Asia Championship): India and Sri Lanka have been virtually seeded directly into the semifinals of the SAARC division qualifying tournament of the Middle Asia qualifiers for the 26th FIBA Asia Championship.

Five teams have been drawn into two groups with the top two teams playing the criss-cross semifinal play-offs.

India and Sri Lanka have been drawn in Group A and the only game in the group will decide the position of the teams, with both having already qualified for the semifinals.

Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal comprise Group B.

The winners of the tournament will join winners of the 3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup Lebanon, East Asia champions Korea and SEABA’s Malaysia in Group A of the Preliminary Round of the 26th FIBA Asia Championship to be played at Wuhan (China) from Sept 15-25.

The Draw Ceremony for the 26th FIBA Asia Championship was concluded at the host city last Wednesday.

India and Sri Lanka were two of the four teams which represented Middle Asia in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship at Tianjin two years ago.

India finished 13th and Sri Lanka 16th.

The tournament will mark the first international outing for American Kenny Natt (pic above) who took over as the coach of the Indian team a couple of weeks ago.

The schedule

July 13

0900 Hrs Gr. B: Nepal Vs. Bhutan

1700 Hrs Gr. A: India Vs. Sri Lanka

1900 Hrs Gr B: Bhutan Vs. Bangladesh

July 14

0900 Hrs Gr. B: Bangladesh Vs. Nepal

1700 Hrs SF1: A1 Vs. B2

1900 Hrs SF2: B1 Vs. A2

July 15

1500 Hrs 3rd place: Loser SF1 Vs. Loser SF2

1700 Hrs FINALS: Winners SF1 Vs. Winners SF2

FIBA Asia