NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - While the debate over whether foreign players are helping or damaging the progress of home-grown players in the WCBA is likely to flicker forever, there is little doubt more and more people are gravitating towards watching and following the Chinese league.

Any women's basketball fan who loves to watch games online or merely follow the results and progress from various leagues is seeing the WCBA push higher and higher up their respective watch-lists.

While the situation is fluid and will have changed by the time you read this, heading into the round of games on Tuesday 25 November, there were three teams all with 8-1 records - namely two-time defending champions Shanxi and powerhouse duo Shanghai and Beijing, who all had 8-1 records. It bodes well for an exciting season in coming months.

The wealth of Chinese clubs nowadays means that this race in particular is still being played out by the very biggest names in women's basketball, from Maya Moore and head coach Lucas Mondelo at Shanxi, to Sylvia Fowles at Shangai and Brittney Griner and Ting Shao at Beijing.

I guess it is interesting to some that I would include Ting Shao in the same breath as those others, but the multi-talented forward used the platform of the FIBA World Championship for Women in Turkey to reiterate that she really can be the centrepiece of Chinese women's basketball for many years to come.

Part of that will be to have her name continued to be put up in lights alongside the well heralded import players in the WCBA.

Another player who showed some great promise in Turkey was Wen Lu. While she didn't shoot the ball well, I think she is someone else who can provide the backbone for China for the next two Olympic cycles. She is thriving on the added benefit of her international experiences - which only started at the senior level last year (and no doubt the input of legendary coach Tom Maher) - by averaging a magnificent 22 points per game for Bayi.

Meanwhile, having announced her retirement from the international scene, it's a pleasure to see the legendary Lijie Miao still going strong with Shenyang and the three-time Olympian had a stunning 23 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds performance last weekend in a 95-93 overtime thriller at Liaoning.

Of course Bayi and Shenyang are the two 'army' clubs in the league. I say that because we had the wonderfully fascinating case of Shanxi coach Mondelo revealing the rule which prevents other clubs from playing their foreign players in the final quarter of games against the duo.

You never know with Mondelo though and at first it was sensible to check he didn't have his tongue pressed into his cheek and was joking. Politics and sport are intertwined all over the world and in some countries, this reaches a scale which to those located elsewhere on the globe, seems incomprehensible.

For the record, Shanxi lost for the first time recently, falling to Shenyang.

Coincidence? Well, Moore had 40 points in defeat. Just how helpful it was having the best player not on court down the stretch is debateable. For rising stars like Meng Li who are likely to continue playing for China at future FIBA events, they won't get the luxury of celebrating a win internationally because the opposition's best player is not there in crunch time.

Still, if nothing else, it adds yet more intrigue to the WCBA and unravelling the politics has become part of the attraction.

What is truly important is that for those outside of China like myself, we don't only focus on the foreign players continuing to rack up huge numbers. We should also recognise the contribution of the leading Chinese participants, since I have noticed a shift which suggests they are more regularly competing for the headlines.

I will never move away from the notion that in any nation, domestic players playing against the best makes them better - provided the coaching infrastructure underpins this and import limits are finely balanced.

I think the WCBA might need to loosen up slightly, because having two-three foreign players would be the next sensible step.

The WCBA authorities need to have the confidence in their own home grown players to show they can compete.

There shouldn't be anything to be afraid of with a 9-3 split in favour of Chinese players. For me, having an 11-1 split almost places an even stronger spotlight on this never-ending foreigner issue.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

FIBA's columnists write on a wide range of topics relating to basketball that are of interest to them. The opinions they express are their own and in no way reflect those of FIBA.

FIBA takes no responsibility and gives no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of the content and opinion expressed in the above article.