Four a change! cont'd

 

Front-runners Al Rayyan signed former Charlotte Bobcats player Jermareo Davidson, who helped them win both cup competitions last season. Other teams too have hired professionals who plied their trade in the US, Europe and Latin America.

While Sadd, Jaish and Rayyan look strong on paper, other teams too will entertain hopes of upset wins. But the big three definitely enjoy superior bench strength.

Sadd’s Serbian coach Dejan Tomic, who helped his side to their first-ever Qatar League title last season, said they had no option, but to spend big on new player signings.

“I always tell my boys that it’s tougher to defend a title than win it. This time, with the ‘four professionals’ rule, we were forced to loosen our purse strings and sign major players or risk losing out. The new rule will make maintaining teams and winning tournaments more expensive,” he said.

There precisely lies the problem in the system. Basketball is not the most popular sport in Qatar and there are only limited budgets for teams. A coaching staff member of one of the lower-ranked sides could not hide his dismay.

“We depend solely on the Qatar Olympic Committee for our annual budget, which is insufficient. We find it very difficult to manage the expenses of age-group and senior teams,” said the source, on condition of anonymity.

“Obviously, it isn’t easy. One has to pay high salaries to attract quality professionals. The big-three teams can afford to invest as they almost always feature in the winners’ list, thus earning bonus money. We can’t win tournaments with our team and hence can’t afford better players,” he said.

Qatar National Youth Teams’ Director American Robert Taylor said he was excited to see the teams doing their homework properly.

“The new rule will make the competition outstanding. The exciting thing is that all teams brought their professionals and regular players together so early in the season. They held camps and played several friendly matches. It shows they’ve done their homework well. It’ll reflect on the field,” he said.

But not everyone is pleased with the changes. Al Gharafa coach Kosay Hatem, who also helped the Qatar national team win the ’11 GCC and Arab Games titles, is worried that junior players would get very little opportunities now.

“We’ve been developing our junior players for long and last season, they got ample competition experience as well. We were expecting them to do more this time when the QBF changed the rules. With a single decision, all our hard work was laid to waste,” he said.

“We can’t afford to be left behind, so we’ve signed professionals. But it also means lesser playing time for our junior players who’ve come up through the ranks,” he said.

Qatar Sports Club are another side which depends heavily on juniors. But they face an altogether different problem, which is also alarming. Coach John Wojtak explained.

“Junior players, who want to make basketball their career, should’ve only two aims — their game and university. But here, they’re easily distracted and don’t come for regular training. It’s a problem we’ve got to live with,” he said.

Meanwhile, Al Khor, the new kids on the block, will be the only side allowed to field all four professionals on the court at the same time.

“We promised to introduce two new teams in the league within two years and have delivered. It was Shamal last season and it’s Khor this time. We may’ve one more team coming in next year. As a concession for beginners, we’ve allowed Khor to use all their professionals,” said Sheikh Saoud.

However, Shamal coach Hisham Shabaan felt they were treated unjustly.

“We were given an exception last season (three professionals instead of two). It was the only thing that prevented us from losing badly against bigger opponents. But this time, we’re being treated like any other side. We can’t build a team in a year. We’re short of players and I’m afraid we’ll be the tournament’s punching bags,” he said.

An oft-repeated argument is that with the new rules, players of the Qatar national team would lose out in the long run. But one of them said the general consensus was far different.

“It doesn’t really matter. We’ve been playing for the country and club for more than a decade now. We’re older and appreciate if we get some rest. Let the professionals play and it’ll take some burden off our shoulders,” said the veteran, who requested anonymity.

Even as huge strides are taken towards making the League attractive, drawing spectators seems to be a perennial problem. Though publicising the competition through the English media was a good start last season, more remains to be done.

“All league games are held either at Gharafa or Rayyan. It’s much too far for spectators to go and watch on a daily basis. If games were held at venues closer to the city, Qatar SC for example, it would attract fans, especially Filipinos.

“We love basketball and would like to see quality games regularly. But we also like to combine it with other activities. Presently, travel to and from the venue will take up most of our evenings. I hope a change in venue is possible,” said Pinoy Basketball of Qatar Chairman Pat Carido.

There may be some teething problems, but one cannot fail to see excitement about the new season already building. Sure enough, it promises to be bigger and much better than ever before.

 

KNOW THE TEAMS

The Qatar League’s 2013-14 season will begin at the Al Rayyan Indoor Hall on Saturday. This time, each side can field four professional players and, understandably, the excitement is high. Doha Stadium Plus takes a look at the teams’ prospects. Clubs are listed according to their standings last season, followed by new side Al Khor.
AL SADD, 
AL RAYYAN, 
EL JAISH, 
AL ARABI, 
AL GHARAFA, 
AL WAKRAH, 
AL SHAMAL, 
QATAR SPORTS CLUB, 
AL AHLI, 
AL KHOR

 

BASKETBALL IN DOHA cont'd    Tyler Beesley 

 

​ Three of the top players for Al Sadd are from the National team, and they were highly athletic individuals, all from these African nations.  I explained to him some of my difficulties with finding information about the QBF, the individual teams, and the league, and he indicated that he has been trying to work with the Federation to resolve these issues, but they are still trying to learn as well.  Finally, I explained to him my purpose with being at the game, and he told me that at the beginning of June the QBF will be voting on whether or not they will reduce the number of foreigners allowed on each team.  Currently, each team is only allowed to have 3 foreigners. And in June they will be voting on whether or not to decrease it to 2 foreigners per team.  The purpose of this is to try and promote the play of the Qatari Nationals and get them more involved with the league; however, from what I have seen they do not have enough talent to keep the league viable with quality games.