........Although the event is not sponsored by FIBA, the federation is following its results, so the West Asian tournament becomes a suitable stage for Iranian women basketball players to show the FIBA that they are competent and talented; so maybe the FIBA changes its views on the Islamic basketball outfit. Also after the Malaysian basketball games, Iran women’s team is more confident about their abilities and is looking forward to another great experience. All these brought a new excitement to Iran women’s team preparatory practice sessions. The women’s basketball team follows its hard practices in the situation that they have to share one practice court with both volleyball and handball national teams. All three teams use the same court only with different markings on the floor.

The second camp will last for a week. One of the changes in this camp is that most of the players are freshly out of the junior team. This is despite the fact that the head coach for the women’s basketball team had said they are going to use older and more experienced basketball players for the national team.

Although they are energetic, the women’s basketball team criticizes the lack of support form the basketball federation. They feel after the men’s national basketball team got qualified for Olympics they – women’s team- has became invisible to everyone in the federation. They also criticize the press and public media “ We have no support whatsoever from anyone in the press, it is all criticism that why we are not doing as good as the others.” The basketball players of the women’s team explained,“ The women’s basketball league in Tehran is the most and only important event for women’s basketball, they – the newspapers – did not even announce the results, let alone any genuine report from the league.” This disappointment was apparent from their disinterest with this interview.

The women basketball players who are practicing for the West Asian basketball games are: E. Easaian, N. Ardeshian, Sh. Ratkar, A. Petrous, A. Zamanpour, T. Farati, Z. Khaleghi, G. Kakavand, N. Beaklekli, Z. Latifi, S. Ali, N. Najafi, M. Sharifi, B. Zarringhaba, Sh. Motesharei, A. Artonian, Sh. Sarafpour, S. Ghaninejad, Z.Zanganeh, R. Mahmoudi and S.Zarghami.

Based on the head coach of the women’s national basketball team’s review the team needs to work on their speed and balance and she believes these are the two critical weaknesses of the team. Since their Islamic basketball outfit was not ready, the women’s team practiced with their old athletic garments and they only changed their clothing for the photo shoot. This fact that the team doesn’t practice with the clothing that they would wear for the main game is an issue; their Islamic outfit is heavier.

In answering Shirzanan’s question Fatemeh Karamzadeh, the deputy manager of the basketball federation on women’s affair, explained, “unfortunately this year most of the federation’s resources has gone to men’s team because they are Olympic qualifiers. We don’t even have a proper practice court. The officials should resolve these shortcomings for women’s team if they want to see real progress.” Karamzadeh continued, “ Our first preparatory camp was good. For the second camp we have 19 players and we hope to get back to our own salon. For the third camp we will only chose 15 basketball players. In the new year we will held two more camps before the West Asian in the mid April.” About her expectations of the West Asian Basketball competitions she said, “This is the first time that the West Asian competition has women’s basketball matches and because of this we don’t know anything about our opponents. But we have a very motivated team especially after Malaysia and we hope this motivation keeps them going.”