Sri Lanka Women bag Gold at inaugural South Asian Cager tourney
Sri Lanka beat Nepal to be crowned champions at the Inaugural South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Women’s Championship held at the National Sports Council Indoor Stadium in Kathmandu in the first week of April. In the most awaited final match Sri Lanka beat Nepal 73 to 49 points.
The jubiliant Sri Lankan team with the trophy
Sri Lanka lead by one of the most seasoned campaigners Jayaliya Kumari were the dominant team at the tournament defeating Maldives 106 to 39 points, Bhutan 112 to 31 points and Bangladesh 115 to 11 points to secure full points before the deciding fixture with Nepal who also had an unbeaten run till the Lankans defeated them and claimed the championship.
Sri Lanka dominated the game from the starting whistle and lead in all four quarters. Despite Nepal fighting well from the start but a dramatic performance in the final quarter, where the Lankans outscored Nepal by 23 to 9 points, took them to an easy win at the end.
Sri Lankans goes down in history as the Champions of the first ever Women’s SABA Championships basketball
tournament. The President of the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation Asanga Amaratunga was overjoyed with the feat of the National Women’s team and said, “This being the 99th year since basketball was introduced to the country it’s a great feat and we are proud to say that this is the 1st Gold Medal won by Sri Lanka at any level of basketball and truly a great sign for the future”.
The Head Coach of the team Tuan Murad Amath a very experienced coach said “He had confidence in the team from the word go and he was able to use the entire team during all the five games Sri Lanka played’ which was also a key factor for Sri Lanka to dominate in all their games. He further said the mix of experience and youth also played a huge part in the performance.
The Manager of the team Paul Newman was in all praise for the entire team and support staff that had to go through a lot after the cancellation of the SAG2016 Basketball games earlier in Feb 2016. He said the “the entire team didn’t give up and stayed positive after the drawbacks which allowed them to reach this height. He also thanked everyone who had helped the team along the way.
The Sri Lanka squad comprised of:
Jayaliya Kumari (Captain, Seylan Bank PLC), Premila Fernando, Sanduni Bollegala, Inoka Sandamali (Sri Lanka Navy), Prasadi Fonseka, Erandi Rajapakse (Commercial Credit & Finance PLC), Natasha Parera (NDB Bank PLC), Anjalee Ekanayake, Kumarine Silva (Hatton National Bank PLC), Niroshini Paiva (Nations Trust Bank PLC), Erandi Gallage (Sri Lank Air For), Imesha Thathsarani
Officials: Tuan Murad Amath (Head Coach), Anuradha Wijesinghe (Assistant Coach), Paul Newmen (Team Manager) and Chathura Rodrigo (Trainer)