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BBA Sponsored Brunei Beruang Blazers in 2nd Yuwang EBL Basketball League
June 26th, 2016 | 05:29 AM | 2394 views
JALAN BATU BERSURAT, GADONG
The Brunei Basketball Association (BBA) has officially endorsed Brunei Beruang Blazers's participation in the 2nd Yuwang EBL Basketball League after a signing ceremony took place together with EBL Sports and Event Sdn Bhd at the Brunei Basketball Association Court in Batu Bersurat last night.
BBA was represented by its President Lim Ting Guan while Wira Pori signed on the dotted line for Brunei Beruang Blazers.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Khoo Eng Cheong, Deputy Chairman of BBA.
Meanwhile, EBL Sports and Event Sdn Bhd was represented by Nicholas Teo in a landmark event for all parties concerned.
Brunei Beruang Blazers first expressed interest of joining the league last year where the Blazers owner met with representatives during the league's inaugural season.
Nicholas Teo, who is in marketing, added it was a mutual agreement where the Brunei team showed interest which led to an invitation to join the EBL which was finalised by April this year.
"Ever since they showed interest in participating EBL, we have asked other teams like Labuan and finally we have team owners' meeting in Kuching in April," Nicholas said.
"We invited Blazers owner to come and attend our meeting and from there we had a discussion and finally we all agreed for the participation of the team," he added.
The EBL representative hoped that the league will be an annual event and they will "try their best" but in the meantime they are looking at expansion of the teams.
"Currently we are looking for more teams to participate and we hope it will be a longer term as in 5 or 10 years to see how far we can go," Nicholas continued.
The EBL welcomed Brunei Beruang Blazers's participation in the tournament before dismissing the notion that the team act as a replacement for the team who had just withdrawn from the tournament.
The EBL have already been in concrete discussions with the Brunei Beruang Blazers to join the competition.
Nicholas revealed plans to increase the number of teams in the future from six to eight in the future.
He further shared that they are aiming to promote a Bornean league and not just an East Malaysian state in terms of participation from the whole region with plans to invite teams from Indonesia.
"The participation of a Brunei club will, definitely boost the basketball industry in East Malaysia," Nicholas added.
"Our goal in organising the EBL is to raise the standard of East Malaysia basketball players and now with the participation of Brunei it is within the region."
Meanwhile, Wira Pori, a Beruang Blazers representative highlighted the team has trained progressively in preparation for their debut in the regional tournament.
At this moment prior to signing with EBL at the endorsement of BBA, the team has progressively trained week in week out for the last two to three months.
"In terms of our target, we would like to have a very good showing and then dependent on the level of competition only then we can aim hopefully the championship.
"Of course we would like to go in and win with all the respect of our respective opponents but at the same time we're there to savour the competition as it is a good exposure for our boys.
At this time we are looking for a very good outing and hopefully win the league," he concluded.
Initially, the BBA and the Beruang Blazers encountered a situation when the team were joining the EBL League without endorsement from the association who are responsible for the basketball activities as the governing body.
The BBA reaffirmed their support for basketball clubs especially Beruang Blazers to develop both in Brunei and overseas and the reason why such a situation emerged because the need of going to proper channels with the team only cooperating with the organisers.
The whole situation has since been addressed as they finally opened talks which fulfilled the requirements of BBA.
"Maybe they are a miscommunication in between. After that EBL wrote to us and we replied to them. We tried to settle it out as soon as possible and we don't want this to drag out," said a BBA representative.
"Within five days we already sort out with this signing ceremony."
The BBA are 'happy' with the participation of Brunei Beruang Blazers in the 2nd Yuwang EBL League as they encourage players to seek for exposure.
Source:
@BRUDIRECT.COM
by BruDirect.com
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