In all, Basketball Victoria has selected 20 country teams to compete at the challenge which was formally known as the Southern Cross Challenge.

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The players were picked from recent Under-18 and Under-16 tryout days as well as the Gold Nugget Camp.

Country athletes in U18, U16, U15 and U14 age groups have earned selection for the four-day tournament in January next year which pits the best country teams against best metro.

Basketball Victoria high performance head coach - country women Zoe Carr said she was thrilled with the players that had been selected for the squads.

"It was extremely impressive to see our country athletes return to the court for these tryouts ready to learn and up for the challenge of elite basketball," she said.

"It's been a difficult 2021 for these players, but they have been able to pick up where they left off before the last lockdown.

"It's been a long time coming to high performance basketball tournaments and they've shown how excited and passionate they are about representing country at the challenge. The Kumon Country-Metro Challenge will give our selected players a chance to push their case for state team selections later in 2022 as well."

The Country-Metro Challenge will be held at the State Basketball Centre in Wantirna over four days from January 14-17.

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