PENANG: The Iran national youth team are rated as the dark horses in the inaugural Penang Chief Minister Cup Asian Men's Basketball Invitation tournament that begins at the Han Chiang Indoor Stadium in Penang today.
None of the other seven teams in the fray have faced the Middle East outfit. But the Iranian Under-18 side are being accorded due respect, especially after being crowned champions in the West Asian Youth Championship in Teheran two months ago.
The Iran youth squad, who are making their debut in this part of the world, are equally clueless about the strength of their opponents in the tournament that will run until Oct 27.
The Middle East outfit are drawn in Group B together with the Thailand national side and club outfits Philippines' Spring Cooking Oil and Satria Muda of Indonesia.
The Korat SEA Games-bound Malaysian and Singaporean national teams, India and Chinese club side Tianjin complete the roster in Group A.
“We have no knowledge about our opponents as we have not played any East Asian sides for quite some time. I feel that we would be in a better position to rate our chances and our opponents' abilities after the first two days of competition,” said Iran team manager Hamid Geramian yesterday.
“Following our victorious campaign against the other Middle East countries' youth sides two months ago, this tournament will allow the players to keep their competitive edge.
“We are just a youth squad, and it would be interesting to see how my players fare against the top senior national and club teams in the region.”
Iran have brought the winning squad from the West Asian Youth Championships, and have beefed up the squad with two overaged players – Mohammad Reza Ebrahiminia and Ali Baheran.
Geramian named Emad Salmani, Arsalan Kazemi and Farbod Farman as the key players in the side. All three were named in the Asian All-Star youth team by the Asian Basketball Confederation.
Despite spending close to 24 hours in making their way to Penang from Teheran on Thursday, the Iranians did not show any signs of jet lag during their training session at the tournament venue yesterday.
Tournament favourites China Tianjin take on the Singapore in the tournament's opening game tonight.
The Malaysians, playing under the Penang Malaysia banner, open their campaign against India in the second Group A game.
China Tianjin vs Singapore (7pm)
Penang Malaysia vs India (9pm)
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