Brunei to join Borneo City Cup

by Yee Chun Leong

THE National Basketball team will be competing in the Borneo City Cup 2009 to be held in Miri from June 26 - 28.

The annual tournament will have hosts Miri, Kota Kinabalu and Labuan alongside Brunei fighting for top honours.

Brunei finished third last year in the men's category while Kota Kinabalu emerged champions. The tournament will be played in the round-robin format.

The players for both the men's and women's National teams were chosen by the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) based on their performances in the Inter-City Basketball tournament held in April this year.

The National team has training three times a week at the BBA court at Batu Bersurat.

Tony Tan, the men's team's head coach, said that the team is a lot better compared to last year.

"We have gained more experience as we have played more matches. But too bad we can't have Ben Sim on the team due to injury. The team would be much stronger if we had him alongside Esmond Tan as he is a very good rebounder.

"I think we can improve from our third position from last year. But we don't know yet until the tournament starts," said Tony.

The team will be competing in the Seria Sultan Cup starting this June 14 as warm up games prior to the tournament in Miri.

Tony said, "There will be some strong Filipino teams with some imports playing in the tournament in Seria. So this is going to be good training for us before we head off to Miri the week after."

In last year's edition, the women's National team managed third place. Labuan didn't join last year's edition and are still uncertain if they are joining this year.

Just like the men's team, the women's team also have training three times a week to prepare for the tournament.

"There are a lot of changes to the line-up compared to last year's team as many players have other commitments and can't participate," said Maxim Yap, head coach for the women's National Basketball team.

"But we managed to get additional players coming from the Belait District."

The teams will be heading off to Miri on June 25.

courtesy of The Brunei Times