Local basketball league restricts foreign signings

Local basketball league restricts foreign signings

JAKARTA (JP): Only one foreign signing will be allowed to play
for each team in all games in this year's Indonesian Basketball
League, an official said yesterday.

"This decision is final. It will be made law-binding in a
meeting with the league's ten clubs scheduled in early March,"
the league's vice chairman Setya Darma Madjid told The Jakarta
Post yesterday.

The exact date for the meeting is yet to be fixed, Darma
added.

Indonesia Muda coach Rastafari was behind the decision when he
observed that two foreign players, usually in the team as the
center and playmaker, tend to be too dominant and reduce their
local teammates to mere assistants.

Rastafari was quoted by Merdeka on Monday as arguing that if a
one-foreigner policy was applied, the player would have no option
but to fully involve all his local teammates.

The government decided late in 1994 to open the gate for
foreign stars to join soccer and basketball leagues in an effort
to boost the performance of local players.

To confirm the decision, the league's chairman Budi Rustanto
last week distributed a note to all the clubs notifying them that
they will be allowed to hire a maximum of two foreigners but to
field only one of them in each match.

However, Darma said that not all the league's club members
approved of the move. Some wanted to preserve the existing rules,
which allow two foreign players in their teams. But since most of
the clubs back the new decision, it will be passed in the
league's upcoming meeting, Darma said.

Agus Mauro, Jakarta's Aspac club spokesman, told The Jakarta
Post yesterday that the decision might be detrimental to clubs
whose local players are of low quality because they will no
longer have the pad to hide their weaknesses.

"An example is the Glory from Semarang. It played without
imported players last year and was relegated," Agus said. He
predicted a wider gap between giant and minnow clubs if the
decision is made into a rule.

Uninteresting

Agus said that playing with fewer imported players will result
less interesting games, reduce the number of spectators and in
turn discourage sponsors. "What turns on the spectators here are
the imported stars," Agus said.

Agus suggested that the league should restrict the height,
rather than the number of foreign players, to minimize the impact
of the two-men-show policy.

"They should be lower than the average local players (6'6").
We still need two imports to make up for our locals' lack of
speed and power. After all, we play to win, not to train our
local players."

Darma said that the league will also require each competing
club to include one foreign player on their roster.

This is to ensure fairness, he said. But not all clubs are
financially able to hire even one import.

The ten clubs competing in this year's league are Aspac,
Pelita Jaya, Indonesia Muda Texmaco and newly promoted Satria
Muda from Jakarta, Hadtex and Siliwangi from Bandung, West Java,
and four East Javanese clubs, Halim from Kediri, Bima Sakti from
Malang, Cahaya Lestari Surabaya and Pacific from Surabaya.

The first leg of the new season is scheduled to start in the
middle of March. The league is divided into four legs.

Darma said no foreign players will be allowed to play in the
opening or closing legs. The latter is scheduled to take place
after the National Games in September.

The absence of foreign players in the first leg is intended to
measure the real abilities of local players. In the final leg,
each club will learn how much local players have progressed and
benefited from the foreigners. (arf)