Hong Kong will be looking to soak up international exposure rather than challenge for honours at the forthcoming Asian Basketball Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next week.
Hong Kong coach Cheng Chi-hung said the territory will send a youthful squad with an average age of 22 to the biennial men's championship.
The territory have a tough task ahead of them as they have been drawn against hosts Saudi Arabia and Japan in preliminary-round action. The top two sides advance to the quarter-finals.
'Our oldest member, Chak Man-keung, is 27 and while we have a number of experienced players like Yung Kam-wah, we are still a relatively young squad.
'We might not be able to match teams like Saudi Arabia and Japan. What we hope to do is build towards the 1998 Asian Games when we will be more competitive,' said Cheng.
'South Korea, Japan and China are expected to challenge for honours at this championship. We finished in 15th place [out of 19 countries] at the last championship in 1995 and we hope to improve on that but it will be difficult with the inexperienced squad we have now.' Hong Kong first take on Saudi Arabia, who finished sixth at the last championship, in their opening game on Thursday, before taking on Japan, third in 1995, in their second game, the following day.
