16 - 22 August 2001
Issue No.547
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 August 2001 Issue No.547 |
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Not so good, after all
Last week Egypt's basketball skills were put to two important tests. Applaud was thought to be in store, but instead, there came groans. Nashwa Abdel-Tawab mourns loss from east to west
"East to West, Egypt is the best! East to West, Egypt is the best!" Or so they thought, at least. It didn't quite turn out to be the case; both Egyptian teams -- that of the men's under-21 playing in Japan, and that of the men's senior team playing in Morocco -- providing much disappointment for the nation's basketball fans. The young men took ninth place, while the seniors came in third.
The under-21 team were participating in the third World Championship for Young Men in Saitama, Japan with 11 other contending nations: Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Israel, Japan, Korea, Qatar, Slovenia, Spain, and USA.
The team, playing below the expected par, snatched 23 points each from Ahmed Abdel-Bali and Mohamed El-Saharti en route to a 91-76 second victory over Qatar to secure ninth place.
In their group A preliminary matches, Egypt suffered four losses from Australia, Dominican Republic, Slovenia and Spain; managing just one victory over winless Qatar. The win was secured with Amir El-Fannan's 29 points; a feat which set the nation's record for a first-ever win over Qatar: 79-64.
"The Egyptians did their best in the tournament and booked the ninth place and not the last one and that is a record per se," said Mahmoud El-Habashi, president of the Egyptian Basketball Federation, "Qatar, Japan and South Korea came after us. The tournament witnessed great upsets such as Australia, title holders, came eighth. That's life."
That certainly is life, and El-Habashi went on giving the young team all the excuses for their loss. "We could have won all our matches because we played strong basketball but lack of experience and lack of tall players hindered us from proving our metal."
Despite the young and hampered team, Egypt, proved to be the strongest member of the 2000 African Championship for Young Men, recording a 6-0 record over the course of the competition to qualify for this World Championship for Young Men in Japan. Teams were also entered from Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, all of whom played round robin with 2 games against each opponent. Egypt was the strongest team by a considerable margin, with Tunisia finishing in second place, Algeria third and Libya fourth.
Egyptian Ismail Ahmed (c) shoots for a basket against Tunisia during their men's African Championship basketball match (photo: AFP)
The team to emulate, the team that have settled, is the US which snatched first place after a close 89-80 final over Croatia. The Egyptian's may have the desire and the drive, but critics can attest that they aren't quite there yet.
The senior team, on the other hand, had more to show. They cruised to the semifinal easily, but then seemed to flop. The solid rebounds and court tactics diminished, and they gave away their crucial match to Angola, to finish in third; hence forgoing their chance to qualify for the 2002 World Championship in the USA, for which only the top two teams qualify.
The African Championship witnessed the participation of 12 nations: Morocco, Egypt, Mali, Tunisia, Mozambique, Ivory Coast, Angola, Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, Central African Republic, South Africa. Egypt and Tunisia topped their Group A with nine points each. Algeria, Angola and Nigeria topped their Group B with nine points as well.
Egypt survived an early scare and beat Cote d'Ivoire 83-81, then ousted Mali 77-69, powered Mozambique 86-80 and downed Tunisia 84-77 and suffered their first loss in the last preliminary group A match where Morocco defeated them 88-82.
It could have been a sweet ending for the Egyptian team; the world cup place just one match away. But they gave it away 60-72. What went wrong people ask? They simply didn't play at all.
Any consolation? The fact that Angola went on to take first place by beating Algeria 78-68. Then again, given that the Egyptians took this championship five times, the last time in 1983 -- and came in third in 1999 -- they should accept no excuses and only results.
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