Basketball Tournament in Nepal

SAISA Basketball tournament in NEPAL! First of all, travelling to Nepal was enormously exciting. I had never been there before, and so it was a fantastic new experience. I hadn't travelled for SAISA since the beginning of Grade 11, because both the other SAISA's had been hosted by OSC. I am really glad that my involvement in the team gave me the chance to explore the region, as well as get to know other international schools in the area. I was hosted with the other senior on the team, Ayla, at her cousin's house (by complete chance he and his wife live in Nepal and have kids at Lincoln School). They were extraordinarily generous and made my whole stay just wonderful.


Nepal is a lot colder than Sri Lanka, so playing conditions were very different. You don't sweat half as much, but I tended to run out of breath more quickly. I think this might have something to do with the poor air quality in Kathmandu. In the end, only 7 schools came, because Karachi International School was unable to make it at the last minute due to strikes at the airport. This changed the whole timetable, and meant that instead of two pools, each team had to play all the other teams. This meant that we ended up playing 2 more games than we would have otherwise.

However, to make up for it, they shortened the game time. I actually found this a relief! I was on the starting 5 for the team , and we didn't have much substitution in the games. So I ended up playing a large majority of all of our games - I was exhausted. However, this gave me a chance to push myself to my limits and show what I was capable of. I don't think, overall, that I played as hard as I did last year (I used to go a little feral on court), but I improved in other areas. As team captain, I played an important role in keeping the team together, both on and off court. We were all extremely tired by the end of the tournament, and so I made it my job to smooth over arguments, listen to people's problems and keep everyone happy. I also tried to keep an eye on our teamwork and spirit on the court - things like sharing the ball, working plays and maintaining good sportsmanship.


Our games were against:

• Bombay: 2 games. We won the first one which was really great because we lost to them last year. However, they came back to beat us in the semi-finals by 1 POINT!
  
• Chennai: 1 game. We won!
• Lincoln: 1 game. We won!
• Lahore: 1 game. We lost. We didn't play well as a team in this game, but we also didn't really have the support of our coach during this match. On the other hand, the loss meant that Lahore won their first game in 4 years.
  
• AES: 1 game. We lost. However, I think we gave the AES team the biggest challenge they had in the tournament. They were the champions of the tournament.
  
• Dhaka: 2 games. We won the first game and came back from our defeat by Bombay to beat Dhaka again in the consolation finals.
  

We ended up coming 3rd in the whole tournament. This was the same place that we acheived last year. I was a little disappointed that we were unable to beat Bombay in the semi-finals - it was so frustrating to lose by one point! I twisted my ankle half-way through that match and so didn't play the rest of it, or in the consolation finals. Fortunately, Stephanie took over my position and played like a trojan. Overall, I really enjoyed the chance to play and travel for basketball, and hope that I fulfilled my role as captain to my best ability.