The Secretary General of the Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA), Tan Kee Hian held a press conference earlier this morning to announce a few exciting developments for the Malaysian basketball scene.
First of all, Tan announced that MABA will be hosting the FIBA U17 3x3 Asia Cup 2022 at the MABA Stadium, Kuala Lumpur from the 13th – 16th of October 2022. This international competition will see the arrival of 35 teams from all over Asia in Malaysia’s capital city. The boys’ category will see the participation of 18 teams whereas the girls’ category will involve 17 teams.
The list of teams are as follows:
Boys: Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Qatar, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Girls: Chinese Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Tan also introduced the head coach of the Malaysian 3x3 Basketball teams, Coach Jeff Viernes and hoped to achieve good results in the upcoming competition.
Aside from the FIBA U17 3x3 Asia Cup 2022, Tan also announced the participation of the Women’s National Basketball Team in the upcoming SEA Women Basketball League (SWBL). The Malaysian Women National Team, Malaysia Harimau are one of three teams participating in the competition, with the Indonesia Elites and the Thailand Snipers rounding out the competition.
SWBL, sanctioned by FIBA Asia and SouthEast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA), will be played over three series across three countries, where each team will play each other once every series. The first leg will be played in Korat, Thailand (10th – 12th October), Malaysia will host the second leg of the competition from 20th – 22nd October while the final leg will take place at Surabaya, Indonesia (25th – 31st October).
The final 12-women roster representing Malaysia in the SWBL is as follows:
Guards: Chong Yin Yin (166 cm), Magdelene Low (169 cm)
Forwards: Tan Sin Jie (168 cm), Toh Ke Hui (168 cm), Chia Mun Yi (169 cm), Lee Phei Ling (171 cm), Foo Suet Ying (173 cm), Yap Fook Yee (173 cm), Pang Hui Pin (175 cm)
Centers: Hin Jia Wei (172 cm), Hon Ai Wen (175 cm), Kalaimathi Rajintiran (183 cm)
Alongside the participation of the women’s team in the SWBL, Tan was also pleased to welcome their new head coach, coach Tracy York into the Malaysian basketball family. Tracy was most recently the head coach of Bendigo Spirit WNBL team in Australia, but also previously boasted the title of assistant coach of the Adelaide 36ers Men’s NBL Team from 2014-2019, as well as the head coach of the Adelaide Lightning WNBL team in 2015/16. She was also part of an exclusive group of international coaches who were invited as guest coaches to work with the Utah Jazz summer league squad during the Utah Summer League.
Aside from her club roles, Tracy also spent the last decade coaching within the Australian Junior Women’s program, culminating in the championship winning Australian U17s team in the FIBA Asia Cup held in Jordan in June 2022. The same team then went on to compete in the World Championships, hosted in Hungary, where they achieved an impressive fifth-place finish.
Working alongside coach Tracy, in these couple of months, will be coach Dan Cahill, long time confidante to coach Tracy in Australia. Dan is also the current assistant coach of Australia’s National Basketball League 1 (NBL1) team, Southern Tigers.
This content is provided by Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA).
