Basketball fed finds tourney sponsor

Competitive basketball will return to Phnom Penh in the last week of this month with the newly introduced six-team community-based mini tournament tipping off at the Cambodian Country Club court on February 25.

The monthlong event will be sponsored by Chitato Potato Chips according to Oktavianus Hauw, the manager of Extra Joss Fighters club and member of the organising committee.

Following a team managers meeting on Sunday, the tournament format and the schedule were finalised.

The six teams taking part are Master Tapsi and Warriors (both from the Philippines community), Smart Dragons ( Wester n) , Te a m Res peck (Cambodian), MSGM (Chin e s e ) a n d E x t r a J o s s (Mixed).

The teams will play against each other in single round robin at the end of which point the top two teams ranked will advance to the semifinals.

The ot her f our wil l be involved in playoffs to fill the t wo re mai n i n g l a s t - f o u r slots.

The first quarterfinal will pitch the third ranked side against the sixth, and other will be between the fourth and fifth ranked teams.

The final, to be played on a best of three games basis, will be held on March 28.

Shift in focus

Unlike in previous seasons, the Cambodian Basketball Fe d e r a t i o n’s a t t e mpts t o secure a main sponsor bore no fruit and the Cambodian Basketball League (CBL) was inevitably called off, much to the chagrin of the teams regularly taking part in the Kingdom’s only major basketball event.

The Federation has shifted its focus instead on youth development and is diverting its resources towards grassroots programs.

The owners of several active clubs hit on the idea of the sixteam mini tournament after the Cambodian Basketball Federation was unable to run this year’s league due to an inability to find adequate sponsorship.

So in an effort to brighten up the nation’s basketball scene and encourage competition across communities that are committed to the game, the month-long tournament will draw on a group of top players from the erstwhile CBL outfits.