Basketball gets extended play across the country
Basketball gets extended play across the country
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The 2005 A Mild IBL basketball competition starts next
Wednesday in an extended six-month-long series of games that will
take in 15 cities nationwide.
Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) director Agus A. Mauro said
on Thursday that matches would be held in Jakarta, Bandung,
Semarang, Surakarta (Central Java), Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Malang
(East Java), Denpasar, Lampung, Palembang, Batam, Medan,
Samarinda, Pontianak and Makassar.
The 2004 competition was limited to six cities, all in Java
except for Denpasar and Medan.
He said this year's selection of the cities to also include
ones in Kalimantan and Sulawesi was intended to increase
recognition of the sport among fans.
"We designed the A Mild competition in Java and outside Java
so that basketball lovers, particularly young people, could love
the sport more and more," he said.
"We hope we can add more cities to host the IBL competition in
the following years."
Ten clubs are confirmed for the competition: defending
champion Satria Muda Britama, 2004 runner-up HP Aspac, Citra
Satria, IM Panasonic Telkomsel, Kalila, Bhinneka Sritex, CLS Good
Day, Avian Bima Sakti, Angsapura Sania and Panasia Garuda.
Agus also noted that this year's competition was about three
months longer than the duration of the two previous contests.
Surakarta will hold the first series of games on March 9-13,
followed by Surabaya (March 22-23), Samarinda (March 26-27); Bali
and Lampung (April 9-10) and Yogyakarta (April 16-17).
The competition will then move out of Java and Bali to
Sulawesi. Makassar will host the IBL all stars game from April 30
to May 1, followed by Jakarta on May 12-16, Malang (May 25-29),
Batam and Medan (June 4-5), Bandung (June 9-13), Palembang and
Pontianak (July 2-3) and the 11th series in Semarang on July 9-
10.
The top four teams decided from the preliminary games will
play in the semifinals in Jakarta from July 21-24. The final, the
best of three games to be played on a home-and-away basis, will
be held on Aug. 7, Aug. 14 and, if necessary, Aug. 15.
However, Agus said not all cities would be able to host full
competition during the stops.
"Surabaya and Samarinda, for example, will only hold the IBL
competition over two days instead of one week. There, only four
clubs will play instead of 10."
"The decision was based on the consideration that one week of
competition in those cities might make fans bored."
For fans unable to catch all the action on court from the
stands, Global TV will broadcast games every Sunday from 4 p.m.
to 6 p.m.