The national basketball team head coach Cheikh Sarr will early next month, name the squad bound for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers which are scheduled to begin in February.

Landry Jabo, the Executive Director of the Rwanda Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) told Times Sport that the team would have started preparations this month, but they opted to wait until the festive season ends.

In a separate interview, Desire Mugwiza, the Ferwaba President noted that coach Sarr has already presented to the federation his plans in regards to preparations for the qualifiers.

According to him, among other things, the coach requested that the team should take part in at least two friendly games before going for the qualifiers.

Rwanda was placed in Group B of the qualifiers alongside South Sudan, Cameroon and Tunisia.

The qualifiers will determine the five African teams that will participate in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.

The qualification process comprises six windows which will take place over a period of about 15 months.

The qualification structure:

First round

The 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four teams to play a double round-robin system (home-and-away or two tournaments at single venue). Three best placed teams from a group will advance to the second round.

Second round

The twelve teams will be divided into two groups of six teams. Each group will be formed from teams advanced from two first round groups. All results from the previous round will be carried out. Two best placed teams from both groups plus third placed team with better record will qualify for the World Cup.

The 16 teams that have qualified for Afrobasket 2021 will participate in the first round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup African qualifiers.

As of 22 February 2021, the qualified teams were: Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, Angola, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, Cote d’Ivoire, Uganda, Cameroon, Senegal, South Sudan, Egypt, Central African Republic and Guinea.

FIBA World Cup 2023 Qualifiers Groups (Africa)

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.