YAOUNDE (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament) – Cameroon’s showing at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in the Greece this summer will depend on how the preparations are carried out, coach Lazare Adingono said to FIBA in January.

Now four months away from the competition, Adingono has yet to be presented with a plan by his bosses in the African country.

And that’s because the Cameroon Basketball Federation needs financial support for the national team program.

Federation president Chrysogone Simon Noah is hopeful the country will be in good shape to compete when they take on Croatia and Puerto Rico in Group D.

He said to FIBA.com: “Right now, I am working directly with the Ministry of Sports in an effort to give our young patriots an ideal preparation for the upcoming Olympics and I would like to invite any sponsors that would like to represent us during these preparations.”

Cameroon were a big surprise last summer when they claimed a silver medal after a hard-fought game against hosts Angola in the FIBA Africa Championship title game.

Their previous best performance was fourth in 1974.

Adingono is hopeful of good things to come, but he is also aware that time is running out for a program to be in put in place for his young and very talented team.

“At the moment, nothing,” he said. “We are still waiting for an answer from the authorities.”

Noah is confident the team will have a great tournament in Athens but only if financial backers come forward.

“I believe that we have fantastic players to represent this continent [Africa] on such a grand stage and I do hope that we will have the financial support of every supporter of basketball and supporters of sport in general in order to help this group of young talented prepare in good conditions and have a realistic chance of competing during the pre-Olympics in July,” he said.

“I have been in contact with coach Adingono and he is working directly with all the players abroad that will be joining the training as soon as we have a final word from the ministry of sports.”

FIBA