Jordan - Zain maintain local dominance as season winds down

From www.jordantimes.com
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As the local basketball season ended on the weekend with Zain winning their sixth consecutive Premier League title, focus will now switch to regional events for clubs and the national team.

Zain and Applied Sciences University (ASU) will represent Jordan at the 22nd Arab Clubs Championship in Beirut starting April 25. Zain hold the Arab Clubs Basketball Championship title which was held in Amman in 2008.

The Jordanian champs, who recently finished runner-up behind Iran’s Mehram at the West Asian Championship, also qualified to the Asian Basketball Confederation’s 20th Asian Champions Cup slated for May 12-20 in Indonesia. Zain won the 17th Champions Cup in 2006.

Following the two competitions, the national basketball team will regroup for a series of training camps and regional events leading up to the Asian Championship in August for which Jordan qualified after winning the 2nd FIBA Asia “Borislav Stankovic” Cup last year.

In an interview with The Jordan Times, Jordan Basketball Federation (JBF) Managing Director Ayman Samawi said the national team, which is made up mostly of Zain’s players together with those from ASU, Orthodoxi and Riyadi, will have a series of camps and friendlies in Indonesia, Italy, China, as well as playing in competitions in Qatar and William Jones Tournament in Taipei.

Samawi urged officials to help secure the necessary funding for the national team which had made its mark on the Arab and Asian scenes. “We believe the national team as well as clubs deserve more support, and we have won enough championships to earn that,” Samawi said.

In 2008, the national team competed at the 18th Arab Basketball Championship in Tunisia where they conceded their title to hosts Tunisia 83-77 in the final match.

The squad also finished runner-up to Lebanon at the West Asian Basketball Association Championship, retained the William Jones Cup and won the “Borislav Stankovic” Cup.

In 2007, Jordan won the Arab Basketball Championship for the first time and finished runner-up to Egypt at the 11th Pan-Arab Games in Cairo. They also took fifth place at the 24th FIBA Asian Basketball Championship in Tokushima, Japan.

In 2006, they finished fourth in Asian Games in Doha missing the chance to book a qualifying slot to the 2008 Beijing Games.

In addition to Zain’s lineup, which is led by Sam Douglas, Enver Soubzookov and Zeid Alkhas, the national team will include Ayman Ideis, Wisam Sous, Islam Abbas and Zeid Abbas.

In remarks on Orthodoxi’s general assembly deciding to scrap professionalism and refocus efforts and funds on age-groups, Samawi said the JBF will hold a workshop with clubs and those concerned to address the issues hindering the sport.

“Professionalism was only applied in terms of player transfer rules, however, there are many issues to address in order to help clubs who are the real backbone of the game,” Samawi said.