LONDON - British Basketball has been left in a state of despair after government agency UK Sport decided to allocate zero funding to the Great Britain men and women's national team programmes ahead of the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The decision was delivered as UK Sport apparently decided to 'shore up' the funding of sports they judged to have the best Olympic medal prospects for 2016, with a raft of individual sports all receiving funding.

British Basketball has already expressed its acute disappointment and asked why there has been an abandonment of a sport that has come so far in such a short space of time and one that is demonstrating it can grow young talent to prepare for a medal challenge in Tokyo 2020.

Indeed one of the factors in restoring funding last year, was on the basis of that medal potential.

The funding plug was pulled despite a strong representation of data which underlined the rising popularity of the sport and especially amongst young people, with 70 percent of active players in the UK under the age of 25 and approximately 50 percent of those from ethnic minority groups.

Basketball was also Britain's largest Olympic participation team sport and the second largest team sport after football.

The decision was also taken despite basketball being judged as having a 'green' rating in both UK Sport's own review system 'Mission 2016' and its self-assurance audit system.

British Basketball's Performance Chairman Roger Moreland reacted to the hammer-blow by stating: "There is a gap in the system and that system needs to change otherwise there is no hope to realise legitimate aspiration for those sports that are not already at the table.

"The system is not like a tap. To work effectively, it cannot be turned on and off and still produce players and coaches to succeed in future Olympic Games or World Championships.

"The basketball community at home and abroad will be aghast that this can happen again. It seems every barrier to progress for basketball originates in Britain; the very country that should be embracing the progress its basketball teams have achieved.

"UK Sport decided not to fund basketball in December 2012 and have done so again. As we asked then, we ask again - what price a legacy from 2012?"

He went on: "We are still on the road to Rio but we now have to qualify for EuroBasket 2015 with our hands tied behind our back.

"We will need to take stock of the challenges this decision presents."

Meanwhile, FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Baumann said: "We are very disappointed that UK Sport has decided to remove all funding for British Basketball in the lead-up to Rio 2016.

"While their approach of attributing funds to the sports they believe have the most medal prospects for in 2016 make sense, they must understand that getting value for their investment in basketball will happen but that this takes more time - as it does generally for team sports.

"Given the proper funds, we are confident that British Basketball can build on an already good base and achieve medal potential for Tokyo 2020."

FIBA