All 6 Clubs Returning For Asean Basketball League’s Sophomore Season

Wimbo Satwiko | August 23, 2010

Encouraged by the reception it received during its inaugural season, the Asean Basketball League will open its new campaign with its lineup of teams intact.

Five of the six teams from last season — Indonesia’s Satria Muda Britama, Malaysia’s KL Dragons, the Brunei Barracudas, the Philippine Patriots and the Singapore Slingers — have kept their names.

The club from Thailand, known last season as the Tigers, has changed its name to the Cobras.

The Cobras and the Dragons kick off the 2010-11 season with a game on Oct. 2 in Bangkok.

ABL founder Tony Fernandes said there had been a plan to add three more teams for the 2010-11 season — one each from Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

However, Fernandes said officials were unable to finalize the proposal in time for the season opener in Bangkok.

“We decided to keep the same number of teams,” Fernandes said on Monday. “A number of parties showed interest in joining the league this season, but their entries came very late. It’s our aim to add more teams, and we’ll do that next season.”

Fernandes said the FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, had officially recognized the ABL, and this season’s league champion would represent Southeast Asia in next year’s FIBA Asia Champions Cup.

As the reigning ABL champions, the Patriots were supposed to play in the Champions Cup, but Philippine basketball officials fielded a squad of national junior players for the tournament, which was held in May in Doha, Qatar. Read More…

Source: Jakarta Globe