Ammon News - By Aline Bannayan

AMMONNEWS (Jordan Times) - Last season’s top two teams - reigning league champions Zain and runner-up Orthodoxi - will represent Jordan at the 12th West Asian Clubs Championship which opens here on Friday with the region’s top 10 teams taking part.

Reigning Arab champs Zain will play in Group B alongside titleholders Lebanon’s Riyadi, Iran’s Saba Battery, Syria’s Jeish and Iraq’s Karkh while Orthodoxi will play in Group A with Iran’s Mehram, Lebanon’s Muttahed, Syria’s Jala’a and Yemen’s Ahli. The top four teams from each group will move to round 2 before the top four move to the semis.

The tournament, organised by the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA), stipulates that the top three teams, provided they represent different countries, qualify to the Asian Basketball Confederation’s (ABC) 20th Champions Cup (Asian Clubs Championship) slated for May in Indonesia. Zain were the only Jordanian team to win the Asian title in 2006.

Orthodoxi had a training camp in Beirut and have regrouped while recruiting Damon Jackson and James William while Zain trained in Malaga, Spain, and have recruited Ontario Lett and Mike Christiansen after playing the local league without imports this season. Zain lead the league standings and will face Orthodoxi who are fourth in the best-of-three second round play-offs later this month.

Orthodoxi’s coach Muntaser Abul Tayyeb told the championship’s media committee that the Lebanon camp had achieved its objectives with “players having gained much needed cohesion in the lead-up to the event.”

“Orthodoxi will be a competitive team,” he added.

At least five teams, including Iran’s Saba Battery and Lebanon’s Riyadi, are eyeing the title.

The West Asian Clubs Championship started in 1998 and Orthodoxi were the only Jordanian team to win the event in 1999. Jazira (currently Riyadi’s team) were runner-up in 1998, Orthodoxi were runner-up in 2001 and 2002, while Arena were runner-up in 2003. In 2006, Fastlink and Riyadi took part in the event which was played as part of a league format with four teams qualifying to the Asian Clubs Basketball Championship.

Last year, Zain and Orthodoxi took part in the 11th West Asia Clubs Championship in Iran where Lebanon’s Riyadi beat titleholders Saba Battery 83-82 to win the title. Petrochimi beat Zain 70-60 to take third place while Orthodoxi finished fifth after beating Syria’s Ittihad 75-71. Zain qualified alongside Riyadi and Saba Battery to the Champions Cup where they were eliminated in the quarters.

Zain, the reigning five-time league champs, made Jordanian basketball history by winning the 17th Champions Cup in Kuwait in 2006 after finishing runner-up to Qatar’s Rayyan in 2005. The same year they also finished runner-up to Lebanon’s Riyadi in the Arab Clubs Championships.

The Jordanian champions were unable to compete in the WABA event in 2007 because of a technical dispute with the Jordan Basketball Federation. Instead, 2005/06 league runner-up Riyadi and third-placed Arena were nominated to represent Jordan at the event.

Zain first joined the Premier Basketball League (formerly First Division) in 2002 and won the title in 2003. In their short history, Zain’s sponsorship of the team proved a key element, as they were able to recruit top players from other local clubs and Jordanian pros playing abroad, like Sam Daghlas and Enver Soubzoukov. Last year, they won the 21st Arab Clubs Basketball Championship, with an unbeaten run in the event, which included beating former Arab and Asian champs Hikmeh twice and also former Arab titleholders Lebanon’s Riyadi who were seeking their fourth title in a row. They recently finished runner-up to Lebanon’s Riyadi at the 20th Dubai International Tournament.

Orthodoxi have not won the league since 2002. They were a record 22-time champs and before Zain joined the league they had a five-year reign, interrupted only in 1997 by Jazira (currently Riyadi’s team) who ended a previous three-year reign.

FIBA clinic

Meanwhile, a two-day International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Commissioners Clinic will also be held alongside the event starting Saturday.

In an interview with The Jordan Times, League Commissioner Mudar Majdoub, who was the first in Jordan to attain FIBA Commissioner’s licence in 1999 when the clinic was held in Asia for the first time, said 13 participants from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Iran and referees Tayseer Sa’adeh and Mohammad Tarifi from Jordan will attend the clinic which serves both as a refresher course for commissioners as well as to license new commissioners.

The clinic will be the second one for the WABA zone after the first was held in Beirut in 2007.

Majdoub and referees committee chairman Mohammad Horani are the only FIBA commissioners in Jordan. Majdoub said the clinic will be run by FIBA Sports Director Lubo Kotleba.

Majdoub explained that those passing the written test and getting the licence would be entitled to represent FIBA in regional championships and be technical supervisors at major events.