Ammon News - By Aline Bannayan

AMMONNEWS (JT) - Amman - The 22nd Arab Clubs Basketball Championship tipped off in Beirut Saturday with Zain and Applied Sciences University (ASU), Jordan’s representatives in the event, competing against 12 top Arab teams.

Zain are playing in Group 3, which includes Bahrain’s Manama, Yemen’s Tilal, and Palestine’s De La Salle, while ASU’s Group 2 includes Lebanon’s Hikmeh, Qatar’s Jeish, Kuwait’s Arabi and Morocco’s Tangiers.

Group 1 includes Lebanon’s Riyadi, Yemen’s Nizwa, Algeria’s Majma’, Saudi Arabia’s Hilal and Iraq’s Kahraba. UAE’s Nassr and Sudan’s Merrikh pulled out a day ahead of the event forcing a rescheduling of matches and reduction of groups to three only.

The top two from each group and the two best third-placed teams will move to the next round.

Zain were the only Jordanian team to win the title when Amman hosted the 21st edition last year. Previous Jordanian participation saw Orthodoxi finishing runner-up in 1978, and fourth in 1990. Fastlink (now Zain) were runner-up in 2005.

Zain who won the Jordan Cup this year, recently clinched their sixth consecutive Premier League title, while ASU finished runner-up after overcoming Riyadi who settled for third place and Orthodoxi came in fourth. Zain had an internal camp while ASU played in a friendly tourney in Morocco where they finished second.

‘’We aim to keep the title among Jordanian teams,” Zain Club President Nasouh Qadiri told the press before the team’s departure. ‘’We intend to win, and a win for our club is an achievement for Jordan and Jordanian basketball,’’ he added.

Last year, Zain won the title with an unbeaten run which included wins against former Arab and Asian champs Hikmeh twice and also former Arab titleholders Lebanon’s Riyadi who were seeking their fourth title in a row.

The Jordanian champs, who recently finished runner-up behind Iran’s Mehram at the West Asian Championship, also qualified to the Asian Basketball Confederation’s 20th Asian Champions Cup slated for May 12-20 in Indonesia. Zain won the 17th Champions Cup in 2006. They will have Wisam Sous, Husam Lutfi (Riyadi), Ayman Due’s, Ibrahim Bassam (Orthodoxi) as well as Zeid and Islam Abbas (ASU) on loan on their lineup for the Champions Cup.

Record

Year Venue Champion

1978 Syria Jala’ Aleppo (Syria)

1987 Algeria Ittihad Alexandria (Egypt)

1988 Morocco Rashid (Iraq)

1989 Egypt Bina’a (Algeria)

1990 Jordan Rashid (Iraq)

1991 Egypt Ittihad Alexandria (Egypt)

1992 Syria Ittihad Aleppo (Syria)

1993 Egypt Jazira (Egypt)

1995 Egypt Ittihad Alexandria (Egypt)

1996 Lebanon Ittihad Alexandria (Egypt)

1997 Tunisia Mala’b (Tunisia)

1998 Lebanon Sagesse-Hikmeh (Lebanon)

1999 Lebanon Sagesse-Hikmeh (Lebanon)

2000 UAE Jazira (Egypt)

2001 Saudi Arabia Jazira (Egypt)

2002 Lebanon Ittihad Alexandria (Egypt)

2004 Saudi Arabia Ittihad Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)

2005 UAE Sporting- Riyadi (Lebanon)

2006 Morocco Sporting - Riyadi (Lebanon)

2007 Saudi Arabia Sporting- Riyadi (Lebanon)

2008 Jordan Zain (Jordan)