wallflower

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

basketball for all

Sports has transcended time and games that were played decades ago are still in the scene till today. Football, soccer, golf, hockey, baseball... and basketball... they've all had a history, a beginning and have yet to see an end...

People reading this blog shld know I am an avid basketball fan... however, it pisses me off to see how the sport still remains a predominantly male one... with so many competitions for guys (the Men's Open, Youth Cup, Inter-Constituency Cup and the many invitational cups - Boon Lay, Yuhua, Chong Pang...) and so few for females (Women's Open, Youth Cup). With so few cups for the females, it's no wonder Singapore remains stagnant, or in my opinion, deteriorating in the basketball scene.

There are a couple of rules for the cups that I definitely do not approve of, such as not allowing national team players to play and not allowing non-Singaporeans to play... all these came about frm a new and revised ruling, something that has been constantly changing throughout the years. However, by allowing national team players and foreigners or PRs to play, the cups will become so much more competitive and interesting. As witnessed in the Singapore Cup held at Singapore Indoor stadium, S'pore does have a huge fan base for basketball and they do enjoy watching foreigners play, perhaps more than watching locals as they can see more amazing and spectacular plays carried out by the foreigners. And by watching them, we can only stand to gain. Playing with better players will help improve the team and with the current situation. Perhaps this is just the cure to the drought.

And as witnessed in the Singapore Cup, the team of Philippinos played so much better as compared to our own S'pore team. With such talent on our shores, why don't we utilise their skills and help improve the basketball scene in S'pore? We're recruiting players frm China and other countries anyway; why don't we make use of what we have and utilise our PR citizens who are already on the island? I believe they can play as well, if not better, than our local players.

Don't get me wrong - I love basketball and I respect our local players, coaches and all; which is why I'm bringing this up. I hope to see the day when basketball is given the hype and glamour it deserves, and perhaps a start to achieving these would be to let foreigners, national team players and PR citizens play in the competitions, as well as increase the number of competitions available, to the females especially.


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