Print this articleEmail this article The Brunei Barracudas couldn't just sit and wait for their first game next month when the second season of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) tips off on Oct 2.

Nadzaty Azma Azeez, the owner of the Barracudas, revealed that Brunei's first professional basketball team had already started training to prepare for the new season albeit only with their local players.

"We have already started training the local players having been training under the assistant coach. We already have our import players and head coach shortlisted and we will soon announce our full roster during the team launching," said Nadzaty, in an interview, during an event to announce AirAsia's title sponsorship of the ABL 2010/2011 season at the Maba Stadium in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The owner of the Barracudas, however, would not reveal the players that had been selected.

Coach Bong Ramos led the team to a 6-9 record last year that saw them fall short on making the playoffs in the inaugural season, finishing fifth in the six-team tournament.

"The target for last season was to not end up last and we managed to do that. We even managed to push the (KL) Dragons till the last game of the season in search for a playoffs spot," said Nadzaty.

"This year, we're looking forward to achieve something better and to attract more fans," she added.

On AirAsia being the title sponsor for the ABL, Nadzaty said: "We are expecting more fans to join us for away games now since it will become more accessible especially that AirAsia will come up with some special packages."

Ramos this week told The Brunei Times that he would not be back to coach the Barracudas and neither would American import Reggie Larry, who has signed with Barcelona to play alongside Ricky Rubio, nor Filipino Leo Avenido, who will be playing for the Singapore Slingers next season, be back to don the blue jersey.

The Brunei Times