It’s basketball but it isn’t girly
In a country where sport basically means football watched by men, a womens’ basketball league is struggling to survive. One writer doubts she would even survive a training session
Let’s face it, sport isn’t really a hobby most girls are interested in, especially in Cyprus, where football dominates and 90 per cent of the fans are male.
Although a few months back, I did spend a day with the women’s national football team, giving me hope that any gender issues in sports are on the road to abolishment, it was clear that the handful of women trying to make a difference were struggling to push through the boundaries. Of course, it was a relief to know that they were there trying to make a difference but a women’s basketball team? How could they survive in a world where even men’s basketball is slowly dying in the shadow of football?
It was Friday evening and I was looking forward to wrapping up the interview and swiftly moving on to drinks with the gang. I arranged to meet the APOEL women’s basketball team and their coach, Adonis Christou, during practice and even packed my trainers in case I was tempted to have a go. However, the moment I stepped into the new multi-use indoor stadium at the Makarios Sports Centre, it was clear that this wasn’t a place for girlie girls like me and certainly no place for heels. The brand new parquet glistened under the spotlights and the sound of trainers screeching along the floor and balls bouncing certainly drowned out the clack clack of my heels. The court was split up into three sections with the help of nets and I caught sight of two teams of women playing on either side of one of them. One was in black and looked awfully vicious and quite serious while the other was decked in blue and yellow and looked surprisingly friendly. It was just like the movies. That’s my team, I thought to myself, and headed towards them. I was welcomed by Adonis, the coach. “You’re not going out tonight,” he yelled as I approached, “you’ve got a game tomorrow, so forget about it.” There goes my idea of killing two birds with one stone and inviting the team out for an interview over a couple of drinks then.
The APOEL women’s basketball team was founded in 1994 but unfortunately hasn’t won a title since, a fact that Adonis (who is quite new as the coach) is hoping will change. “I only recently took on the team and have already begun rearranging and changing what needs to be done in order to win this season’s championship and it looks good because we are the favourite already,” he said. “We’re playing our first game tomorrow, so fingers crossed,” (APOEL went on to win the next day). Adonis has lived and breathed basketball since the age of 14, when he first started playing for APOEL. However, he’s been in coaching for almost ten years but has never before dealt with women. So, how is he finding his new job? “I’m not going to lie, it’s very different working with women,” he said. “They’re obviously more fragile and their psychology is completely different to that of a man’s, so I do have to be careful in the way I talk and train them.” However, once training began, it didn’t seem that way to me as Adonis switched into coach mode and began barking orders at the girls in a loud voice that would probably have me running off to the toilets in tears; but then I’m not used to all this whereas most of these girls have been playing and training since they were very young. “People think that you can just start playing basketball as there’s not really that much to it but that’s not the case,” Adonis said. “One needs to start young and most of these girls have been playing for almost 10 years. We have an age range from 16 to 32 in our team alone and we didn’t just pick them up off the street.” Katerina Sofroniou, 23, has been playing since she was 10 and has recently completed her studies as a physical trainer. “I’ve been doing this for so long, not because I was told to or one of my parents was involved in basketball. It’s just something that I love and always have.”
The girls work hard, clocking up to two hours every day on the court running, shooting hoops and learning new techniques. “There isn’t much time to do anything else really,” says Koulla Nicodemou, 20, who has also finished studying as a sports manager, “but we don’t really mind because this is what we want to be doing.” Since the age of 10, Koulla and most of the other girls have been dribbling balls and playing for various teams around the island but I was about to discover something that indicates just how much these women love this sport: they don’t get paid and they don’t have sponsors. So, they don’t get anything out of playing for this team? No, apart from the pure excitement of being on court, they said. “Technically, we are meant to get £25 a month from the federation but that doesn’t happen every month,” explained Koulla. “Basically, I think they just give us the money whenever they feel like it and if they don’t there are girls who can’t be bothered to go out of their way for such a small amount and there are others who see it as something they deserve but either way, very rarely does the cheque just appear.” However, the girls are adamant about telling me it’s not just about the money. “We feel neglected and that’s the truth. We don’t have a representative and only now, this year, do we have new players, foreign girls, who are taller and can do a lot for the game. Last year, we would get young girls from the academy whenever we were short. Things are looking better but we are still in a neglected position.”
Based on everything the girls have mentioned, one would find the KOA (Cyprus Sports Organisation)’s website on Woman and Sport pretty ironic as it clearly states that ‘the main aim is to develop an athletic culture that would render possible and attribute value in the complete attendance of women in each side of sports and ensure that all women and young girls have the occasion to participate in sports in a sure and encouraging environment that does not offend the rights, dignity and respect of the individual’.
It’s a far cry from the multi-million dollar business that basketball has become in the States. Basketball’s flagship, the North American National Basketball Association features 29 male teams and generates an annual turnover that allows these teams to spend between 26 and 85 million dollars per year on player salaries alone. The television rights of the NBA net 785 million dollars per year in the US alone, an amount that rivals the television contracts of other main sports rights such as the Premier League (that nets £483 million per year). But again, when it comes to female sports even the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) doesn’t come close to that of the men’s. It hands out its TV contracts for free to ESPN and takes place in the NBA off season (when other main sports such as the National Football League and the National Hockey Association are off as well, thus allowing enough free airtime on the national sports channels), and survives merely due to it’s close ties to the men’s NBA. But either way, the WNBA is the first major professional women’s league of any kind to be considered a success in the US.
Although basketball didn’t become a medal sport at the Olympic Games until 1976, its history can be traced back to 1896, when it was established at several colleges as a game women could play. It was played on a half court with three players on either side, beginning as a game for physical fitness purposes only. But soon PE instructor Senda Berenson noticed the girls’ endurance and the first game was held between Stanford and Berkley. Men were boycotted from the event and women were assigned to the windows and doors to ensure no man would interrupt the game. But that wasn’t the only difference between then and now. During th
e initial era of women’s basketball, the style of hoop changed quite a bit too. Some had closed buttons on the net with a string attached to them and when a basket was scored the string would be pulled popping the ball out of the hoop. Others state that when basketball was first invented the hoops were like peach baskets with a bottom. Each time a player made a basket the referee would climb on a ladder and get the ball.
Fast forward to 2006 and I’m perched on a bench watching the APOEL team practicing wrist movements, passes and signalling either with their eyes or specific hand gestures. A young girl gets slapped in the face with a ball and before she is able to utter a word, one of the older girls shouts: “You should be expecting it, you should know!” At that point I decide I would rather keep my heels on, sit the game out and avoid becoming mincemeat. These women on the court are serious; there’s no messing around and there’s no time for complaints and nagging. They’re tough and know exactly what they’re doing. Not once do they turn around to check out the other team training right next to them and not once do I hear them argue. They get on with what they’re doing, completely focused even though they know that whether they win or lose, no one will care apart from them.
Contact the Cyprus Basketball Federation: 22 667432
Women’s basketball teams in Cyprus
APOEL
Tel: 22 379234 or 22 378220
Keravnos
Tel: 22 313936, 22 673141 or 22 863110
AEL
Tel: 25 814433 or 25 814432
Achilleas K.
Tel: 22 432898 or 99 643635
Anagennisi Germasogeias
Tel: 25 320001 or 25 326005
ETHA
Tel: 22 590233 or 22 590383
ENAD Agios Dometios
Tel: 22 878354
