Chennai: The city of Chennai, after 15 long years, will witness international basketball on its turf at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, on Friday when the Indian men’s basketball team faces Qatar in the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers.
India will further play another match on November 25, against Kazakhstan.
This is the first time since the 2009 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup that Chennai will host an international basketball match, as a young Indian team will take on the Qatari challenge.
After losing their opening matches in the qualifiers against Kazakhstan (50-63) and Iran (56-83), India are currently fourth in Group E, with the top two teams set to qualify for the Asia Cup, scheduled to be held at Saudi Arabia in 2025.
India is currently ranked 76th in the world and Qatar, despite a lower ranking than India (currently 101st), does have a better head-to-head against India, having won four of the previous five encounters.
It will be the first meeting between the two nations since 2015, when these two sides met in the FIBA Asian Championship, with Qatar winning 84-58.
‘Excited to finally play these games,’ head coach Scott Flemming
Head coach Scott William Flemming shared an optimistic outlook during the pre-match press conference.
“We’ve been working hard for several months now, we’re excited to be here and finally play these games. Great to have a home game in India, that doesn’t happen very often,” he said.
“We’re a very young team, we do have a couple of veterans with us but the rest are 25 and under and hopefully that will be to our advantage. I know the boys will play hard and give their best, and if they play to their potential, good things will happen,” he added.
This is Flemming’s second stint as the Indian national team coach, having served his first tenure from 2012-15.
Notably, India won gold at the 2014 and 2015 South Asian Championships under his reign, along with another gold at the 2014 Lusofonia Games, in Macau.
He remained tight-lipped about India’s preparations for the match against Qatar, stating “We’ve studied them (Qatar), we’re prepared for them, I don’t want to give away too much right now regarding how we will play against them.”
He also highlighted the importance of the two exposure tours that the national team had in the lead-up to the two games, wherein India played six games in Dubai.
“It is always good to play other teams, as opposed to playing amongst us, it gives us an idea of where we stand and how the players are doing, we had two tours to Dubai playing a total of six games and it has helped a lot,” he said.
Where to watch the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers in India?
Live streaming of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers will be available on the official FIBA YouTube channel and the Courtside 1891 website.
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