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After 3-Year Break, Women’s Basketball Is Returning to Indonesia
Wimbo Satwiko | February 21, 2012

With a new Indonesian women’s league tipping off soon, players like the Ubaya’s Nelly Sapan, right, could play after college. (JG Photo/Safir Makki) With a new Indonesian women’s league tipping off soon, players like the Ubaya’s Nelly Sapan, right, could play after college. (JG Photo/Safir Makki)
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After a hiatus of more than three years, the women’s basketball league will tip off again next month.

The Indonesian Basketball Federation (Perbasi) and promoter Development Basketball League Indonesia on Tuesday introduced the Women’s National Basketball League, which will have five clubs vying for the trophy during its inaugural season.

The WNBL is scheduled to start on March 14 in Surabaya. The top two teams will play in the final on April 28.

“When [Perbasi] appointed us to organize the NBL [men’s league] in 2010, they asked us to also set up a new women’s league. We told them we needed time,” DBL director Azrul Ananda said.

“We talked again about that on January and we agreed to start the project, the WNBL, in March.”

Three of the five clubs — Sahabat Semarang, Rajawali-Tunas Mojang and Sritex Dragons — played in the last season of now-defunct women’s league, the Kobanita, in 2008.

The others, Tomang Sakti Mighty Bees and Surabaya Fever, are new clubs, though most of their players had experience in the Kobanita.

The six-club Kobanita was inaugurated in 1996 but was disbanded 12 years later because of lack of funds, sponsors and fans.

Mahaputri Britama, which won the 2008 league title for a record seventh time, disbanded in 2009. Most of its players will join the Mighty Bees.

Azrul said that he didn’t expect much from the women’s league in its first season.

“First, we’ll try expose the league so fans will know about it. We’ll start the WNBL in the same time and place as the NBL’s fifth series [March 10-18] in Surabaya, to make sure that it will have media coverage,” Azrul said. “If the first season goes well, we hope more clubs will join the league. We’ll do it step by step.”

Perbasi chairman Anggito Abimanyu said he was glad that the promoter finally followed through with its commitment to the women’s game.

“We hope the league will grow bigger from here and create opportunities for many players that will eventually improve our women’s national team,” Anggito said in a statement.

Since the demise of Kobanita, Perbasi has had problems in choosing players to play on the national team.

During the Southeast Asian Games last year, the federation turned to inexperienced players from the National Collegiate Basketball League (Libamanas) to make up the squad. The team lost all four matches at the Games in Jakarta last November.

Hasan Gozali, the Mighty Bees owner, believed the WNBL could rejuvenate the women’s game.

“The league will make it easier for national team coach to choose players, while players themselves would have a stage to perform and hone their skills,” Hasan said.

“Now there is also a clear career path for the players. They could start from the DBL [a high school competition], then to Libamanas before joining WNBL clubs.”

On Monday, University of Surabaya claimed this year’s Libamanas trophy.