KUALA LUMPUR: All women’s basketball teams can only have one naturalised player at the 34th edition of the SEA Games, which Malaysia will host in 2027.
Malaysian Basketball Association (MABA) president Datuk Seri Lee Tian Hock said that as hosts, Malaysia has the right to set the rules as stipulated under the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules.
“In Malaysia (in 2027), we will only allow one naturalised player... because (at the recently-concluded Cambodia SEA Games) we could have won the gold medal but many countries used naturalised players, with most of them from the United States.
“This gave them an advantage as the naturalised players are bigger and taller. If only local players (were allowed), guarantee we would have won gold,” he told reporters after the ceremony to present incentives to the national women cagers who competed in the Cambodia SEA Games at a hotel here today.
MABA rewarded the women’s basketball team, who clinched bronze at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games to repeat the feat they achieved at the 2021 edition in Hanoi, Vietnam, with a total of RM225,000.
Tian Hock is confident that by ensuring a level playing field at the 2027 SEA Games, the national cagers can repeat the golden feat they achieved in the 2015 and 2017 editions of the biennial Games.
Meanwhile, he also expressed hope that the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will be able to resolve the issue of recruiting naturalised cagers as soon as possible to ensure they can strengthen the national team.
“Before we went to the Cambodia SEA Games, I did speak to (Youth and Sports Minister) Hannah Yeoh about the recruitment of naturalised players but she said we had to comply with the policy that one has to have lived in Malaysia for 10 years.
“However, I suggested that naturalised sportspersons be accepted after just five years. So, I hope this matter can be resolved for the next edition of the Games (the 2025 Thailand SEA Games),” he said.- Bernama
