ANKARA

The Turkish national basketball team will play against Belarus on Thursday in their first group match in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifying stage.

Turkey are in the Group B with Belarus, Great Britain, and bitter rivals Greece.

The game between Turkey and Belarus in Minsk's Sports Palace will begin at 1630GMT.

Turkey later will face Great Britain on Sunday in Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Arena.

Turkey will be led by Anadolu Efes playmaker guard Shane Larkin, Fenerbahce Beko shooting guard Melih Mahmutoglu and Barcelona center Sertac Sanli.

Turkish players in the NBA, Cedi Osman (Cleveland Cavaliers), Furkan Korkmaz (Philadelphia 76ers), Alperen Sengun (Houston Rockets), and Omer Faruk Yurtseven (Miami Heat) could not join the roster for this week's qualifiers due to busy NBA schedule.

Road to World Cup

In the first round, 32 teams will compete in eight groups (A-H), playing home and away games. The best three nations in each group will qualify for the second round.

The qualifiers will be held between November 2021 and February 2023.

Twenty-four teams will reach the second round to compete in four groups (I-L) but only 12 European countries will go to the 2023 FIBA World Cup, which will be hosted by the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.