Dubai: Dribblers Basketball Academy (DBA) will make its international debut when they embark on a tour of Sri Lanka later this month.
The three-year old set-up comprising of three groups of 12 — boys Under-12, girls Under-13 and boys Under-16 — are scheduled to play three matches a day in Kandy from July 25-27 and Colombo from July 29-31.
The opposition in Kandy will be Colombo International School, Kingswood, Trinity, St Anthony’s Girls, Hillwood and St Anne’s, Kurunegala.
Their opponents in Colombo will be Royal College, St Peter’s College and Colombo Basketball Academy, Visakha Vidyalaya, St Joseph’s and Ladies College.
Founded in May 2011 by a former Sri Lanka basketball captain Sujith Croos, the DBA has swelled from a small group of eight dribblers to 100 members attracting the expatriate community from Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Philippines and Pakistan.
Establishing a basketball academy has been a dream come true for Croos, who has represented Sri Lanka at the youth level (Under-17 Asian Championship in Doha 1987) and regularly at senior level from 1990-2000, the last three years as captain.
Since the age of 15 he had ambitions of becoming a basketball coach but it nearly ended when he relocated for employment to Dubai in 2000.
DBA have taken part in several local tournaments but are now embarking on their maiden overseas tour. The team trains three times a week at Mizhar Sports Hall in Dubai.
