Lebanon saw this week the finals of the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) Men's Championship in the Lebanese capital Beirut June 28 until July 2nd in the elegant closed stadium of Camille Chamoun Cité Sportive. The strong Syrian side withdrew at the last moment citing "securiity concerns" after the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al Hariri and hasty withdrawal of then Syrian forces from the country. Syria had tried to no avail to change the WABA venue into another country or at least postpone the championship, but the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) and the WABA refused, leading to Syria's withdrawal.

Five West Asian countries participated: Hosts Lebanon, also Jordan, Iraq, Iran and Yemen with the Yemeni side coming with the youngest roster of the whole championship. Although Yemenis suffered hige losses against powerful Lebanon by 78 point advantage 118-40, and against Jordan by 104-63 and against Iran, the eventual champions 81-49, they had the last honour in the closing day against Iraqis 59-54. 

The Yemeni basketball selection was quite ready to tackle what may be considered as its only feasable chance of any points, meaning its match against the Iraqi side.  And Yemeni youth side was up to the challenge winning this key game and finishing its campaign with 1 win and 3 losses in 4 games and finished fourth overall in West Asia. The opponent Iraq posed to be a formidable hurdle and the game a very interesting one for the 4th overall position in West Asia. The game could have gone to either side actually till the closing seconds. Iraqis started quite well ahead 16-13, but with a much better Yemeni performance , the latter regained the lead before half-time 28-27. the third quarter was greatly balanced tit-for-tat affair, but still Yemen held to the lead by one basket 45-43. The Yemeni side proved it could deliver more on the decisive moments and deserved a win at the whisle 59-54 thanks to the Yemeni promissing young player Taha al Osari with 20 points. Iraqi Ali Hussein Hassona who plays professionally for the Bahraini Al Muharraq team was top scorer for Iraq with 14 points.

In the other equally crucial game, Lebanon had an emphatic win over Jordan 90-74 to capture the silver. Iranians had already clenched the gold with a clean sweep after winning all its games in the prior day.

The final classification of WABA 2005 is as follows:

1. Iran 4-0 8 points gold

2. Lebanon 3-1 7 points silver

3. Jordan 2-2  6 points bronze

4. Yemen  1-3  5 points

5. Iraq  0-4 4 points

Top three teams have qualified to the Asian national basketball finals for men to be held in Qatar this summer. Thus Yemen will not qualify for Asia.

Coverage of Yemeni basketball in the Lebanese press:

The Yemeni side (which is headed by head coach the Serbian Rade Vojnovic and his assistant Abdel Kader Ali Yousef al Rayyan) and the whole Yemeni spirited performance took the attention of the Lebanese press that reported on an extensive scale on Yemen's basketball programme. Most notably the Lebanese "Al Balad" daily newspaper published a special page on the Yemeni basketball team. The paper mentioned that the Yemeni Basketball Federation had devised a careful four-year plan to raise the level of basketball in Yemen through this team of relative youngsters and rookies.

Jamal Hassan, manager of Yemeni selections said the team had benefitted from facing much stronger and experienced teams during WABA championships. Until last year, we had no wins to mention on the continental and international levels. But now it has been a year, we have winning some key games on the regional level, he said. He also added that there was a decision not to rely on naturalizations and that all players will be of Yemeni origin with some token reliance on Yemeni expatriate communities like the case of Taha al Osary and Adel Bourji.  The training is done by reputable coaches form abroad including China and Algeria. The head coach is a Serb (Vojnovic). The budget has been expanded considerably and now our players get some monetary renumeration making them financially more stable. The Yemeni basketball league also allowed engaging foroign imports to increase level of play and interest in the league and certainly attendance has improved and a Yemeni television channel broadcasts some of the games as well. There is also a firm decision on Yemeni participation in all regional and international events when we qualify and a special budget has been consecrated for such events.

The assistant coach Abdel Kader Ali Youssef Al Rayyan said that they benefitted greatly from their huge loss against Lebanon. For sure, we weren't demoralized by one bit from that big defeat, for right from game two, we were able to rearrange our strategies and team tactics and were much better in the ensuing games, finishing with a fine victory over Iraq. This team will not give up and we will persevere despite the difficulties and sometimes heavy losses, he added. We just want to reflect the image that we always try hard, he said. 

Shad\y Rashad (from Al Mina team) head of the team said we have started from zero. The other teams are so much well-prepared for years. We had a one-month camp which cannot be considered enough. But it is a start and we want to show the better side of our programme and that we can be a good match to other teams in the near future. Taha al Osari, who is a Yemeni-American and clearly one of the most promissing on the team said he was not after personal accolades (he was chosen best Yemeni and top scorer), but I want the whole team to win he added. Personal titles don't mean much. We have to achieve collectively. Adel Bourji, the other Yemeni expatriate recruit said he doesn't play in Yemeni league but joins the national side whenever needed. I get along quite well he said. I try my best to adapt and contribute more and be supportive to my fellow teammates so that we can deliver better together. Finally Fahd al Awlaqi said that the losses did not deter them. We need more international contacts of this kind he added. He also added that the average height of the Yemeni team was still not enough as compared to most other teams. He said that height disadvantage caused many problems on the defensive side to us. We like to challenge and we are a persevering team. We never give up, he ended on an optimistic note. We just continue to strive till the last minute as always. 

Al Mina was crashed cause of losing the championship for Ash Shaa’b Ibb just in the last three rounds, although Al Mina was the first for 14 weeks, but Al Yarmouk was celebrating his Ascension to D1 last two weeks and the team was really motivated and prepared to do a good game and to qualify to the final game in Sana’a. Al Yarmouk was good enough to make that game in their side by winning the game with a final result of (81/75) in Aden,which is very strange to us that Al Mina could be defeated especially in Aden.