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)