The hard work that the national basketball team put in lead up to their major international challenge this year came in handy they finished runners-up in the SABA Championship in Dhaka earlier this week.
Sri Lanka lost just one game to regional powerhouse India in this campaign as performances of several young players stood out Dasun Nilantha, Nimesh Fernando and Rukshan Atapattu played brilliantly throughout the campaign.
However, the standout performer was captain Clinton Stallone who was unstoppable both in offense and defense. His leadership skills also stood out and moving forward he has much to offer.
Sri Lanka’s selectors had balanced the side with a mixture of youth and experience and this exc
opportunity to build on for the future.
The team was placed in a bio-secure bubble for a period of one month lead up to the tournament. With Sugathadasa Hotel complex being their base during the training period, the team was able to train, conduct gym, swimming and recovery sessions at the same premises. This helped to improve the performance of the team and more importantly developed camaraderie amongst players.
SLBF President Aelian Gunawardene travelled with the team to Dhaka as Chef de Mission.
SLBF thanks our generous sponsors Velona, Vaaj Group and MAS.
We also thank the employers of our players and coaching staff for granting duty leave for an extended p
training successfully. Our players are employed at Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Army, Ministry of Education, FairFirst InsuranceLtd, DFCC Bank and Commercial Credit and Finance PLC. One of our players is an undergraduate at University of moratuwa.
SLBF also thanks members of the media for your continuous support to develop the game of basketball in Sri Lanka.
