Special Feature

Malta in the San Marino 2001 GSSE

 The Road to San Marino - Basketball

Basketball has been an everpresent discipline at the GSSE since the first edition in San Marino in 1985. It was only in Liechtenstein two years ago that basketball was left out in the cold.

Basketball has a special place in the history of the games as it was the first ever sport which landed Malta a medal. Way back in 1985, Malta won its only bronze medal thanks to the basketball team which edged past Andorra and lost narrowly to Cyprus and Luxembourg to place third and claim the bronze medal. Although the gold medal has always eluded Maltese basketball, the tally of medals notched in past editions translates into one silver and four bronze medals.

This time round only the men's category will be contested in San Marino and Malta has been drawn to play against Monaco, Andorra and Iceland. Monaco are making a surprise return to the fold after an absence of many years. In fact, the locals, marshalled by Joe Galea, know very little about this team, though in all probability, most of the players to constitute the Monaco side will come from mainland France.

A lot has changed since the last time our basketball teams lined up for competition at these games in Iceland in 1997. In previous editions, the basketball side had always featured a number of foreigners who were engaged by local clubs in the domestic league. Nowadays, clubs do not engage any foreigners and this will be the first ever time that an all Maltese team will compete at the GSSE.

Local basketball experienced a taste of the Italian league in 1998 when AirMalta La Valletta competed in the Sicilian league winning the first encounter against Comiso 74-70. Unfortunately, the side wilted as the season progressed and was relegated after the play-offs. The sorry outcome of this adventure brought a hasty end to this experiment.

However, the national team still tasted international competition through various tournaments including the Promotion Cup which pits the like of Andorra, Scotland and Wales against the locals.

Joe Galea, who took over the national side in the summer of 1999, after having coached the side together with Kevin Decesare since December 1998, set about to build a young team for the future.

Some 16 players were called to form the nucleus of the national team. This number has now been trimmed to 12 who will be eventually making the trip to San Marino. Unfortunately, key players Steve Schembri and Ernestino Riolo had to be dropped from the national side as they are sitting for university exams at the same time that the games are being contested in San Marino.

The national team players train for two hours a day at the Ta' Qali pavilion with Sunday being an off day. In order for the lads to peak at the right time, the national team will be playing two matches against Ragusa and Amatori Basket over the coming weekend.

The national team is built upon the Pembroke side with five players forming the backbone of the squad. Surprisingly, current champions Luxol have only one player in the national side. The rest come from Hamrun (3), Siggiewi (2) and Rabat (1).

Basketball is a popular team sport with 12 senior male teams contesting two divisions; the national league and the first division.

Joe Galea has ultimately placed his faith in the following players who will be doing their utmost to do Malta proud in San Marino: Michael Naudi (4), Julian Naudi (5), Robert Azzopardi (6), Etienne Bezzina (7). Alan Borg (8), Nathan Farrugia (9), Omar Said (10), Adrian Micallef (11), Duncan Cuschieri (12), Abraham Portelli (13), Antoine Grech (14), Silvio Cassar (15).

The Maltese basketball delegation will be headed by Louis Azzopardi. Official Ottavio Terribile will also accompany the side.

National coach Joe Galea knows that Malta's opponents will be tough nuts to crack but will be hoping for some surprises from his boys.

Malta's games in Group 2 are as follows:

Tuesday 29th May vs Monaco 18.00
Wednesday 30th May vs Andorra 21.00
Thursday 31st May vs Iceland. 18.00

Group 1 is being contested by Cyprus, San Marino and Luxembourg. If the national side manages to avoid the bottom rung of the group, it will be in action again on Friday 1st June in the semi-finals.