Anniversary Cup a test for national team

Anniversary Cup a test for national team

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Basketball Association (Perbasi)
will use the Anniversary Cup in July as a test for its men's and
women's teams to face the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Kuala
Lumpur in September.

Five Jakarta sister cities are invited to send their teams to
the event, Perbasi secretary general Yudhi Suyoto told a press
conference on Friday.

"The Anniversary Cup will be one of the events to test the
national team's skills prior to the SEA Games," he said.

Five men's teams from Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, Rotterdam and
Paris and two women's teams from Beijing and either Tokyo or
Seoul are likely to attend the Cup, which is held to mark
Jakarta's anniversary.

The Games training program for Indonesia's men's and women's
teams will begin next month in Jakarta. The selection procedure
for the men's team finished on Thursday while for the women's
team it will take place between Jan. 26 to Jan. 29.

Yudhi also said Perbasi would make all possible efforts to
finance the training program.

"Perbasi, which oversees basketball's development nationally,
understands the importance of the SEA Games. We have prepared
everything. We must help the National Sports Council (KONI)
financially. It's very important that the training can continue."

Yudhi also said Perbasi decided to switch managers of both
men's and women's teams.

"Perbasi had earlier decided that the men's team manager was
Max B. Lani while the women's was Erick Thohir. But after
consideration, we have decided to switch their positions."

Yudhi said Max was more comfortable in dealing with the
women's team and he would be able to concentrate on supervising
the whole team.

Erick would have less time to handle the women's team, who
were originally to be trained in Surabaya, after he was appointed
president director of PT Abdi Bangsa who run Republika daily.

Yudhi denied charges that Perbasi's move resulted from Erick's
request to withdraw himself in protest to the chairman's
decision.

"Perbasi will try to understand its official's difficulties
and work to seek a solution cooperatively," he said.

Julisa Rastafari, the women's team chaperon, said that the
women's team aim to reach the final of the SEA Games.

"We aim to reach the final, but to tell you the truth, we are
in doubt as to whether we will be able to achieve that. At least
we can grab a bronze medal. We have a short training period," she
said.

The men's team is coached by Tjetjep Firmansyah, who is also
coaching the 2000 men's national league champion team, Aspac of
Jakarta, while the women's team is trained by Wellyanto Pribadi,
coach of the 2000 women's national league champion team, CLS of
Surabaya.

Tjetjep said he had no problem with the replacement of the
team's manager as long as he had overall authority on deciding
the team's training program.

"I myself have no problem with the replacement. The most
important point is whether the manager can support me," he said
in a telephone interview.

He also said 16 players had been listed as national team
members but Perbasi would decide on team members.

He also said that three players --Johannis Winar, Ponco Wibowo
and Hidayat-- failed to show up for selection. Nine of the 16
men's team members joined the 1999 SEA Games. (ivy)