FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying tournament for Paris 2024: Indian men in Group A with Chinese Taipei, South Korea and Bahrain
The draw was conducted by the international basketball federation (FIBA) on Monday.
Basketball
The Indian men’s basketball team has been drawn in Group A alongside Chinese Taipei, South Korea and Bahrain for the Asian leg of the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments, scheduled from August 12 to 20 this year.
The draw was conducted by the international basketball federation (FIBA) on Monday. The venue of the Asian leg of the tournament will be confirmed later.
Group B of the Asian draw features Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Syria.
For the draw, eight teams were divided into four pots of two teams each based on the FIBA World Ranking for men. India were placed in the third pot with Syria.
Ranked 38th in the FIBA basketball rankings, South Korea are the best-ranked team in Group A followed by Chinese Taipei (69), India (82) and Bahrain (84).
A total of 12 teams, including hosts France, will participate in the men’s basketball tournament at Paris 2024. Seven of these teams will be decided at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, which will be jointly hosted by the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia in August-September this year.
The remaining four slots will be decided through the two-stage FIBA Olympic qualifying tournaments. The first pre-qualifying stage will be played at a continental level while the second qualifying stage will be a global event next year.
A total of 40 teams which failed to qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 will be getting a second chance at making it to Paris 2024 through the pre-qualifying tournaments.
Out of the 40, 28 nations are the teams which made it to the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 qualifiers but failed to make the final cut for the 32-team World Cup.
The other 12 teams are the highest-ranked nations that did not qualify for the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 qualifiers.
India made the list after making the second round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian qualifiers.
From the 40 teams in the pre-qualifying tournaments, five teams - one each from Asia, Africa and Americas and two from Europe - will qualify for the final Olympic qualifying tournament in 2024.
FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament for Paris 2024: Draw for Asia
Group A: India, Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Bahrain
Group B: Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Syria