Monday, January 28, 2008

Satyaseelan calls it quits

For the last ten years or so, Kappusamy Satyaseelan (Segamat Rimba Timor) has done a lot for Malaysian basketball. Most notably, he led Malaysia to the South-East Asian Championship in 2005. He's arguably the greatest shooter that the country has ever produced, and is somewhat of a celebrity there. Satyaseelan began playing for his country in 1996 and has become, by far, their most experienced player. However, Satyaseelan recently announced that he was retiring from the national team. “I’ve had enough and it’s time to move on and let the younger players take over. But I may still play for my state side if they need me. I am thinking of a different job, maybe explore some business opportunities with the savings that I made,” said Satyaseelan. This is a huge loss for Malaysian basketball, a country that hasn't had many players to brag about, although Satyaseelan was certainly one of them. Ranked 61st according to FIBA, there is no telling when a a player of his caliber will come around again for Malaysia.

2 comments:

John said...

Hey Justin thank you soo much for this article.

Just to let you know I am from Malaysia! (Though I'm a huge Argentina supporter).

Satyaseelan is without a doubt a legendary figure in thus country mainly because of his background.

Basketball is predominantly a Chinese game here in Malaysia and only a handful of players from other ethnic play the game.

For the past 10 years or so, his presents and captaincy as help the national team to new heights. So I would have to say, we are going to miss him.

In terms of the game popularity, there is still a long way to go for basketball to establish itself here in Malaysia. Even if we do get plenty of live NBA matches, the timing for this has not been helpful as most game are played in the morning (around 8 – 9 am). But still there is a good following and I do believe the game is growing.

I do hope one-day Malaysia will follow Singapore’s footstep in establishing a local based franchise to play in the Australia’s National Basketball League.

However we are still way behind the Philippines in terms of regional dominance in South East Asian as basketball there is almost like a religion.

John said...

Hi Justin thanks for your comment on my blog. Now here is my response.

How I became an Argentina fan? Simple because of Diego MARADONA. I hope that says it all.

You should visit Malaysia some day, will be glad to be your host.