Veteran cagers eye semis in Lion City

THE national veteran basketball team have their hearts set on a berth in the semi-final of next week's 20th Asean Veteran Basketball Invitational Tournament in Singapore.

Regulars in the tournament, the country will be represented by two teams in this year's edition of the annual event which will run from Sept 7-10.

The team in the 40-50 year-old division is grouped with New City and Myanmar Legend while the 50-60 year-old squad will be going up against Filipino Veteran, Negri Sembilan, Sarawak Senior and Miri Kinsar in their pool.

Both categories are divided into two groups, with six in the 40-50 year-old division and eight in the 50-60 year-old division.

It is understood that the top-two teams in each group will progress to the semi-finals.

A third category for players 60-70 years old is also being contested though Brunei will not be sending a team.

Apart from the hosts, powerhouses Malaysia and regional giants the Philippines will also be ones to watch out for at the Singapore Basketball Centre. Also in the fray are teams from Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Though the Sultanate has only been practicing for two weeks, their coach is confident a slot in the last four could be in the cards especially since both the teams ended fifth in last year's edition in Malaysia.

"The team is made up of a lot of experienced players and a few of them are ex-nationals," said Lim Kah Hoe, the playing coach for the 50-60 year-old team.

"During training we usually focus on stamina and teamwork.

"We finished fifth last year so we hope to enter the semi-finals in both categories this year," he added during the team's training at the Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) court in Batu Bersurat last night.

Yeo Ting Sze is the coach of the team in the 40-50 year-old category, while Lew Yin Chiang is the team's manager.

With Brunei agreeing to host the competition next year, the trip to Singapore will help BBA kill two birds with one stone.

"The most important thing in the competition is friendship," noted Lim.

"It will be good to meet up with our friends from the other teams like Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam who we haven't seen for a long time.

"We can also invite them to next year's tournament when we are there," he said, adding that Brunei has never hosted the event before.

Though the country currently does not have a team for the 60-70 year-old category, Lim was optimistic that one could be set up in time for next year's event.

"We want to be able to organise a category for that age-group as well so we will put together a team for it," said the coach, adding: "we may not have enough players right now but we can get a team started if we bring together the players from Tutong and Belait."

The team's last outing was at the 50th Macau International Chinese Invitational Basketball Tournament in June. Looking ahead to Singapore, the veterans will no doubt be aiming to gain some inspiration from their counterparts in the national team next week.

The side carved its name in the local record books by claiming the 13th Borneo City Men's Invitational Basketball Tournament 2011 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, earlier this month the first time the country clinched one of the top honours in regional basketball.

The Brunei Times