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SINGAPORE : Singapore's basketball scene is set for greater vibrancy.
A new team - "The Cagers" - is hoping to revive the glory days of Singapore basketball, and create a league involving regional teams.
Aged 14 to 24, Cagers' players want to get fellow youngsters excited about the sport.
A few of the team members, including some ex-national players, are hoping to be the stars of tomorrow.
Organisers hope the team will score when they hold a three-day Cagers Asia 2008 competition beginning June 27. MediaCorp artist Felicia Chin and Taiwanese celebrity basketball player Johnny Yan will be making guest appearances at the event.
Besides "The Cagers", a team from Indonesia and two from Malaysia will be part of the event at the Jurong East Sports Hall.
"In future, we hope to involve countries like Taiwan, which has a very vibrant basketball scene, as well as Korea and Japan. That will definitely satisfy a lot of basketball fans in Singapore," said Matthias Koh, director of Finesse Productions.
The long-term aim is to have a league which will draw in the crowds. And to show they mean business, organisers are pumping in about S$1 million for the project.
Currently, the team is not receiving any funding from the Singapore Sports Council or the Basketball Association of Singapore. But the organisers are confident this will change once the competition starts and proves to be a success.
The Basketball Association of Singapore supports the idea, but said the team had not approached them formally.
"We are looking at creating so called avenues or opportunities for our national athletes to grow. But not so much on individual clubs, (unless) we do have excess funding. We have 29 other club members to look after," said Hans Goh, general manager of the Basketball Association of Singapore.
Whatever the circumstances, the players are hoping their brand of basketball will score with Singaporeans. - CNA /ls
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