1.90-metre Cambodian national basketball team player Phal Sophors (centre, orange shirt) has relocated to Phnom Penh from his home province of Prey Veng to play as a professional basketball player.
Thursday, 08 October 2009 15:00 Colin Meyn
With a fresh input of funds and resources, Cambodia’s national basketball team still search for international competitions to see how they stand in the region
For the first time in years, the Cambodian Basketball Federation (CBF) is making a concerted push for the men’s national basketball team to be competitive. Now they just need to find a competition to play in.
In the past year, the federation has scoured Cambodia for young talent and funded a recruiting trip across the world to the US. However, with the cancellation of the basketball tournament in December’s SEA Games in Laos, future international matches have yet to be arranged.
When Laos was named the host nation for the 2009 SEA Games last year, organisers quickly noted the lack of gymnasiums capable of hosting an international basketball tournament. Participating countries, along with sponsor country China, were unable to find a way to make the tournament happen.
“At our second council meeting, we decided that we couldn’t have basketball. We don’t have the facilities,” said Somphou Phongsa, the head of the administration and service committee for the SEA Games in Laos.
Austin Koledoye, head coach of the Cambodian national team for over two years, expressed his frustration over the situation. “We don’t have the money to travel to other countries, and we don’t really have the facilities to host the wealthier countries,” he said. “What are we supposed to do?”
In December 2008, Mak Chanphirun, captain of the 1998 Sisowath High School basketball squad and a current staff member at the National Assembly, was named the new secretary general of the CBF. Since then, the funding and resources that Koledoye has been longing for in his last four years as coach are finally beginning to emerge.
In February, the government paid for Koledoye’s trip to the US, where he met with a dozen Cambodian-Americans, some playing at Division II universities. “I was looking for players with height,” he stated. “We needed an enforcer, someone to go against teams like the Philippines.”
National basketball coach Austin Koledoye is looking for international competitions.
But all the coach found were guards, three of which tentatively agreed to make the monthlong excursion to Southeast Asia in order to train for and participate in the December SEA Games on the government’s tab.
Scouting homegrown talent
The CBA also searched for young talent at home, and found a 17-year-old wide-shouldered Khmer teenager from Prey Veng named Phal Sophors, who moved to Phnom Penh to train in May.
It wasn’t his basketball skills that drew the attention of Mak Chanphirun and Koledoye, who spotted him playing at the annual National High School Basketball tournament in Battambang. It was his 1.9-metre stature.
“He could hardly dribble on the first day, but he’s getting a lot better. Playing basketball is the only thing he is here for,” said Koledoye.
0 comments:
Post a Comment