The head coach of national basketball team, Cheikh Sarr has confirmed that China-based Prince Ibeh will not be with the national team at the forthcoming FIBA World Cup qualifiers scheduled to take place from February 25-27, in Dakar, Senegal.
In an exclusive interview, Sarr told Times Sport said that Ibeh will miss the qualifiers because a lengthy quarantine period of two weeks imposed in Paskistan would delay him from joining the national team camp.
“He won’t make it because he is playing in Taiwan where a 14-day quarantine followed by a 7-day home quarantine are required. When you add to this the seven days of the competition, it means his club will miss him for a month,” Sarr explained.
“That’s why his club won’t agree to release him because Fiba only request clubs to let players join national teams for just one week,” he added.
Meanwhile, foreign-based players Axel Mpoyo (United States), Ntore Habimana (Canada) and Pierre Thierry Vandriessche (France) are joining the national team’s training camp today, February 2, at Kigali Arena while Bahrain-based Kenny Gasana, and Belgium-based William Robeyns the will directly meet team in Senegal.
Sixteen African teams will be battling for a spot in the FIBA World Cup that will take place in Indonesia, Japan and Philippines next year.
The qualifiers journey will run over an 18-month period.
Teams will have to go through a six-window qualifying process that will eventually determine the final 32 teams for the World Cup. Africa will be represented by five teams.
African qualifiers’ groups
Group A: Cape Verde, Mali, Uganda, Nigeria
Group B: South Sudan, Cameroon, Tunisia, Rwanda
Group C: Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Central Africa Republic, Angola
Group D: Kenya, Senegal, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo.
