The Madagascar national basketball team is the national basketball team representing Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. It is administrated by the Fédération Malagasy de Basket-Ball (Madagascar Basketball Federation).

Its biggest success has been the 9th place at the FIBA Africa Championship 1972

FIBA Africa Championship 1972

The FIBA Africa Championship 1972 was hosted by Senegal from December 25, 1971 to January 2, 1972. The games were played in Dakar. Senegal won the tournament, its second African Championship, by beating Egypt in the final...

 where Madagascar surprisingly finished ahead of team Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire national basketball team

The Côte d'Ivoire national basketball team are the men's basketball side that represent Côte d'Ivoire in international competition. The team competes regularly in the African Championship....

 and team Nigeria

Nigeria national basketball team

The Nigeria national basketball team is the national team of Nigeria and is generally considered one of the best in Africa along with Angola and Senegal. They are ranked 21st in the world FIBA rankings....

.

Madagascar was chosen as host of the FIBA Africa Championship 2011

FIBA Africa Championship 2011

The 2011 FIBA Africa Championship was the 26th FIBA Africa Championship, played under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, the basketball sport governing body, and the African zone thereof. At stake is the berth allocated to Africa in the 2012 Summer Olympics basketball...

. The country received the bid from Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

 where the event could not take place because of instabilities after the civil war. Madagascar's automatic qualification is only the 3rd time in its history. Its last appearance at Africa's most prestigious basketball event was in 2003

FIBA Africa Championship 2003

The FIBA Africa Championship 2003 was hosted by Egypt from August 7 to August 16, 2003. The games were played in Alexandria. This FIBA Africa Championship was to earn the one berth allocated to Africa for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens...

.