Dech ready to make history on world stage

Adelaide 36ers guard Sunday Dech is off to make history as part of South Sudan’s inaugural FIBA World Cup campaign, which starts later this month.

Dech left on Thursday to join a 20-man South Sudan training camp squad in Melbourne as the Bright Stars prepare for the 2023 FIBA World Cup with three warm-up matches in a fortnight.

The 195cm guard said to pull on the South Sudan singlet at a World Cup for the first time will be a privilege and something he will never forget.

“It’s an honour to represent my country, a country we left 22 years ago, to go back and represent them is going to be awesome,” Dech said on Wednesday.

“And for it to be the inaugural World Cup for us, I’m really looking forward to it and I get to play alongside some of my friends as well.”

Before South Sudan make their World Cup debut against Puerto Rico on August 26 in Manila, the Bright Stars squad will face Brazil, Venezuela and the Australian Boomers in Melbourne.

Dech played for the Boomers before making the switch to South Sudan last year for the 2023 FIBA World Cup qualifying campaign.

“It will be a great experience for me to play against some of those guys I’ve played with and against through these years playing in the NBL,” Dech said.

“Representing Australia was an amazing achievement, but playing against them is going to be even better and I hope we come away with the win.

“Our focus now is to just go to training camp and do the things we need to do to prepare and put our best foot forward.

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“We have got a training camp squad of 20, so the coaches will have a tough time cutting that down to the 12 players that get to go to the World Cup.

“There’s a lot of NBL talent on our roster and there is some NBA guys coming in late as well.”

South Sudan will play Brazil at Rod Laver Arena on August 14, before facing Venezuela on August 16 and the Boomers on August 17.

“Every step and every game we play from now on, we are making history, we are riding our own journey and it’s one we are really proud of,” Dech said.

“To have the whole country backing us each game is phenomenal, we have got such tremendous support from throughout the world.”

South Sudan have been placed in Group B for the 2023 FIBA World Cup alongside Puerto Rico, China and Serbia, the Bright Stars with a huge opportunity to make it through to the knockout stages.

“At the World Cup, you have to go a game at a time, each team has got their best squad and we want to go out there and make some noise,” Dech said.