China's men's and women's national teams will play 30 matches each in 2007 in a bid to be perfectly prepared for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) has announced.

There are no major international tournaments for the teams this year, so the matches will be friendlies against European powerhouses.

"The teams will play a lot of competitive games because we have very high targets at the Olympics," said CBA official Kuang Lubin. "We had some very good matches last year and I think 2007 is a great chance to improve."

Led by Jonas Kaslauskas of Lithuania and Australian Tom Maher, both teams are aiming for a top four finish at the Beijing Games.

According to Kuang, the teams will head to Europe in May, two months before the European Championships, for warm-up matches against countries like Germany and Spain.

"We are negotiating with the associations in Europe to decide the final schedule. The priority is that they are real national teams with the leading stars. We wouldn't compete against their secondary teams or club teams, because we want to compete against the best teams in the world. This is very important for our Olympic goals," said Kuang.

The official also confirmed that Yi Jianlian, who is scheduled to join the NBA Draft in June, will be with the national team this summer.

China's men's team reached the last 16 of the World Championships in Japan in September, losing to eventual runners-up Greece. The team underlined their regional dominance by winning the Asian Games in Doha in December despite being without NBA All-star Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets.

The women's team crumbled to a worst-ever 12th place at the World Championships in Brazil last September. But the youthful make up of the team means expectations remain high.

Alongside the international friendlies, the men's team will be looking to defend their title at the Asian Basketball Championships in Japan in July.

(China Daily January 17, 2007)