Basketball team aiming to steal spotlight from spikers

Held between October 27 and November 3 at Thai-Japan Youth Welfare Centre, the tournament is split into two Pools, with China and South Korea – Asia’s top two, lying eighth and 11th places respectively in the world rankings, in Level I along with India, Japan, Kazakhstan and Taiwan. Hosts Thailand, who are No 43 in the world, will face Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Uzbekistan in Level II.

Pipat Labprasert, president of the Basketball Association of Thailand, reckons the tournament will serve as perfect preparation for the Thai women’s team to defend their title at the Myanmar-hosted SEA Games in December.

“We will use the same team that will defend the SEA Games title in Myanmar. Many of the players who won the Games title two years ago are still in the side, but we have also included young players from the ‘B’ team as well.”

Pipat has targeted one of the two promotion spots for the hosts, who will begin their FIBA Asia campaign against 48th-ranked Uzbekistan on the opening day of the competition.

“We are aiming to be one of the two sides who will get promoted to the top division in the next tournament. To help us achieve our goal, we have hired foreign experts in sports science to oversee the team’s preparations. It’s a new step for us as we hope to lift the standard of the sport here.”

Although Thailand have not hosted an international basketball tournament for some time, Pipat is convinced the event will be a success. He also hoped it would spark renewed interest in the sport among the public.

“We’ve not hosted a tournament for a while but things will be different thanks to the cooperation of both government and public sector this time.

“Football, without question, is the No 1 sport in the country. But I think basketball could become No 2, despite volleyball seemingly ahead of us at the moment. We just need something to get the public interest back for our sport,” said former national player Pipat.