FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup: Women in main tournament; Men need to qualify

Sri Lankan men’s and women’s 3x3 basketball teams will take to Marina Bay Sands, Singapore next week for the – FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup – with the men needing to go through qualifiers while their women’s team having already qualified to the main tournament.

3x3 is one of the two formats in the fast- paced fascinating game, the same way cricket has T20 as the fastest format. 3x3 has only one quarter of 10-minutes long. The first team to reach 21, or the team leading at the end of the quarter, would be declared winners.

Anjalee Ekanayake, captain of the women’s team, speaking to the Sunday Times ahead of the five-day

competition said, “After so many seniors I got this opportunity. More than the previous tournaments, we’re so focused and prepared for this tournament. The coaches also have been facilitating nutritious and fitness sessions".

“Even though, we have difficulties in facing foreign teams, we are still focused on our targets,” Ekanayake, captaining the side for the second straight time after the 2018 FIBA Asia Cup, added.

The women’s basketballers find themselves in Group 'D' along with Chinese Taipei. They will open their campaign on July 8, against the Group 'E' qualifiers and Taipei, later in the day.

On the other hand, the men’s captain, Chanuka Fernando, in his debut as a captain, feels they can enter the business-end of the tournament.

“It only injects confidence into me since I’ve a good line of communication with my team. Hence, I’m greatly confident about my role,” Fernando said about his leadership role.

The men’s cagers are grouped alongside Tonga and China in Draw 'H', with the latter the Lankans considering their toughest opponent. Their opening match will be against Tonga on July 7 and taking on the Chinese, later the same day.

“Since we dropped down a bit in rankings, we have to go through the qualifiers. In the qualifiers, we have nine groups with three each. But now that China is a strong team in the Asian circuit itself, there is nothing for us to feel bad about,” Fernando, a point forward in this format, previewed. Both the teams managed by Ajith Kuruppu and coached by Sivashakthi Selvaraja, would be leaving the Sri Lankan shores in the early hours of July 6.