The Chinese women's basketball team will have this weekend the first major test before FIBA World Championship for Women 2006, which will take place in Sao Paulo's metropolitan region in the September 12-23 period.

The team will play Brazil in two friendly matches on Saturday and Sunday. The games will be played in Barueri, a city in the metro region of Sao Paulo, which will also host China's preliminary and eight-final matches in the World Championship.

The Chinese players who will participate in the matches are: Song Xiaoyun, Bian Lan, Jia Guang, Zhang Wei, Miao Lijie, Ren Lei, Sui Feifei, Song Liwei, Chen Xiaoli, Liu Dan, Zhang Xiaoni and Chen Nan.

The Chinese team head coach Tom Maher said Friday that the friendly matches against Brazil will help the Chinese players get used to the World Championships atmosphere, as well as improve the teams playing pace.

Maher, who has also coached Australias and New Zealands national teams, stressed that there are still ten days to go before the championship starts, and assured that China will reach the desired level by the beginning of the tournament.

Source: Xinhua