WITH four West Australian products in the line-up and the chance to push for selections for the 2014 Basketball World Cup, all eyes are on Challenge Stadium for tonight's Game 1 of the Sino-Australia Challenge between the Australian Boomers and Team China.

Obviously the Australian team is missing NBA players Andrew Bogut, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes and Patty Mills, potential top draft pick Dante Exum as well as other overseas stars including Joe Ingles, Brad Newley, Aleks Maric and David Andersen.

With at least most of those expected to form the cornerstone at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup taking place in Spain starting on August 30 with Australia drawn in a group with France, Greece and Turkey, every member of the 12 named to face China will desperate want to put themselves in the mix.

The opening game of the four-match Sino-Australia Challenge takes place tonight at Perth's Challenge Stadium with Game 2 at the same venue on Saturday night before the series head to China for Games 3 and 4 in China next Friday night and then on Sunday.

All games will be broadcast nationally in Australia via ABC2.

The Boomers team named for Game 1 features four WA produced players with Cameron Gliddon, Tom Jervis, Luke Nevill and Mark Worthington in the line-up.

Worthington has been a mainstay of Australian teams for much of his career and after returning to the NBL last season with the now defunct Melbourne Tigers, the current Melbourne United-listed player will want to show coach Andrej Lemanis that he still deserves to play for the Boomers at the highest level.

Gliddon has been a strong contributor with the Cairns Taipans in the NBL the last two seasons with strong shooting, ball handling and leadership skills meaning he deserves to be in contention to play with the Boomers.

Nevill, meanwhile, is coming off a strong season in Taiwan and the 7'2 giant has continued to improve all facets of his game in recent years. At his size, he has always been strong around the basket, but his jump shooting from both mid and three-point range is now greatly improved.

This time last year, Jervis had never played a game in the NBL despite spending time on the fringes with the Perth Wildcats. However, 12 months on and he is coming off a season that saw him named the NBL Rookie of the Year and play a big role in the Wildcats' championship victory.

Now, he is a hotly sought after product in the NBL for the 2014/15 season and is now continuing to build his reputation by being named to play for the Boomers against China.

Other members of the 12-man Boomers squad includes fellow NBL players Ben Madgen (Sydney Kings), Rhys Martin (Wollongong Hawks), Clint Steindl (Cairns Taipans) and Lucas Walker (Melbourne United).

Some youngsters are also receiving an opportunity with Angus Brandt (Oregon State University), Hugh Greenwood (University of New Mexico) and Jack McVeigh (Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence) included in the final 12.

Making up the squad is Brock Motum who has most recently been plying his trade in Bologna, Italy.

Boomers coach Lemanis is looking forward to seeing how his group performs over the next four games and to learning who puts their hand up to go to the World Cup.

"We spoke to this group when they first arrived in Perth and spoke about the fact there are people in this room who will go to the World Cup," Lemanis said.

"And as a result there's going to be some great news stories to come out of it. Perhaps three months ago these guys weren’t considered a chance to go to the World Cup, but they could now be on the team.

"If you go through the reality of it, there are probably six or seven guys who pick themselves but after that it's pretty wide open. It's a good opportunity here for these guys in this environment to show what they have to offer to the Boomers campaign."

Meanwhile, it is a vastly new-look and youth Team China as well.

With a new coach Luming Gong replacing the experienced and enthusiastic Greek mentor Panagiotis Giannakis, and without five-time Olympian Zhizhi Wang and other regular veterans, nobody representing Team China in this series is more than 25 years of age.

Every member of the Chinese team is also currently playing in the Chinese Basketball Association with no players based internationally included for this series.

GAME INFORMATION
Australian Boomers v Team China
Challenge Stadium, Thursday May 29, 8.30pm WST
Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au, call 136 100 and Ticketmaster outlets
Broadcast: Nationally on ABC2 at 10.30pm

TEAMS
BOOMERS
Angus Brandt
Cameron Gliddon
Hugh Greenwood
Tom Jervis
Ben Madgen
Rhys Martin
Jack McVeigh
Brock Motum
Luke Nevill
Clint Steindl
Lucas Walker
Mark Worthington

CHINA
Fei Cao
Yuhang Dingyan
Jianpeng Duan
Quan Gu
Muhao Li
Xiaoxu Li
Xiaoyu Liu
Kelanbaike Make
Tonglin Sun
Hanlin Tao
Zhonghao Xu
Xiaochuan Zhai
Dayu Zhang
Peng Zhou
Qi Zhou

Article by Chris Pike