FIBA, the world governing body, confirmed that issues concerning the future of basketball in England , which had threatened to compromise the availability of English players for Team GB, had been successfully resolved.

 

This ensures that British Performance Basketball can fulfil its founding role, to prepare the men and women’s teams to compete in this year’s EuroBasket Division B

 

To qualify for EuroBasket Division A, Team GB’s men must initially emerge from a group containing Slovakia , the Netherlands , Albania and Belarus in a series stretching from August 21 to September 5.

 

Team GB’s women must overcome Estonia , Luxembourg , Bosnia and Portugal in a group which runs from September 1 to September 15.

 

If successful, they then face two promotion play-off matches in September to reach EuroBasket Division A, a place in which is a key criterion for Olympic qualification in 2012

 

“This marks another important milestone in the development of British basketball “said Alistair Gray, chairman of BPB.

 

“We have a clear mandate, a clear goal.

 

"We are not a governing body.

 

"We do not give grants.

 

"We are about performance, producing teams, who will be given the tools to be successful this summer. “

 

John Steele, chief executive of UK Sport, said: “By setting up BPB as a temporary home for the British Team, we at UK Sport are looking to secure a great future on the world stage and, hopefully, a presence at the London Olympics in five years’ time.

 

"We send basketball, and more specifically the players, best wishes for the future.”

 

The GB men’s team will feature Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng, the NBA’s Sportsmanship Award winner for season 2006/07.

 

Another NBA player, Pops Mensah-Bonsu of Dallas Mavericks, is also in a 24-man squad selected by coach Chris Finch.

 

Deng and Mensah-Bonsu will meet up with the rest of the squad for the first time this Friday, at the first training camp in Florida . 

 

They will then arrive in the United Kingdom in August for two home test matches against Ireland in Crawley before opening their EuroBasket summer campaign against Slovakia at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on August 21 and Albania at Meadowbank in Edinburgh on September 1. 

 

Any promotion play off game will be staged in Sheffield on September 11 or 15.