Al Khas: We are losing time everyday, The situation must be solved soon

The captain of Jordan National wants to say his word about the current situation, Zain and National team center Zaid Al Khas explained his point of view about what's going on these days in the country.

1- As a captain of Jordan National Team...Express to us your opinion about the qualification to the world cup?
Its a great honor to be the captain of this team, we worked hard and at the end the hard work paid off. Its a great thing for our country to be with the best of the world in basketball.

2- The bad situation of Jordanian basketball is passing to its 7th month!...How will it effect on the national team's setup for Turkey?
Its effecting us big time, not only the national team, but all players in the country.How can we have a team going to the world cup and not have even a league or a federation. Its a shame on everyone, other countries paid money just to be in the cup and we didnt even send anyone to Turkey for the draw! I'm really upset and mad at what is going on. We should be now getting ready by playing games and working out and staying in shape. We have not played a game since last summer. We are human beings not robots, they cannot expect us to sit down for 7 months then turn on a switch and we are ready to play big games. We need time and practice. Its just a shame on everyone responsible for this problem. We are all jordanians and we represent Jordan.

3- What you players can do toward these problems?
The only thing we can do is just stay in shape as much as we can and try to work hard on being in game situation in practice and we also pray that all these problems are solved soon. We are losing time everyday.

4- How far Zain was effected by this situaion?
You saw what happened in dubai, we didnt play well at all cause all the other teams were ready and played games except us. You can see our shooting was bad and our defense was even worse, we were not the same team that we were last year. Its all because of the problems. You cannot have a good team with good chemistry in 2 weeks. Its takes lots of time. And I cannot blame Zain for anything that happened, they are trying to deal with the situation, but its hard, and they got to look at it from a professional standpoint, they are spending lots of money on the club but the club is not playing. Its going to come to a point were they might just close shop and we all can lose our job and Jordan and Asia well lose a very good team.

5- How're the preprations of Zain for the 13th WABA Clubs Championship? What is missing in the team to make results better?
We are practicing everyday to get ready, but without games its going to be like Dubai again. We are missing games and we are missing a good forgein play that can help us get better.We need 2 imports that can lift the team up and help us locals in being better,and I think the management are doing a heck of a job looking for good players, people have to understand that its hard to get a good pro to a club that don't even play a league, we dont even have a local league, why would he come here just to play 7 games in 3 months.

6- Are you with Palma's being coach of the national team? and Why?
Of course I am with him being the national team coach, he's the guy who took us from nothing to the world cup, we were a good team, but with him we became a great team that all asia know about, we beat teams we never thought we can even play with. He got us on the right track, and its a shame what he is going through,we are supposed to treat him better him and assistant coach Mario Gomez, because they worked hard with us and were patient with all the problems that is going on. And if we are not carful we are going to lose him forever. He's a world class coach and he's not going to take these problems any longer. He might just leave and look for another place.and I'm sure he will find a job in no time, but we don't want this,he's our coach and we need to do everything possible to keep him in Jordan.

7- What do you do outside of basketball world?
Taking care of my family,planning for a business, and I am expecting to be a father this may"my wife got twins",so all and all trying to live my life.

8- What can you say to Jo-Basket.com and fans in the country?
Thanks you for all the nice words you gave us,and we expect more from you in the coming weeks and months,we are jordanians and we should be proud of the things we have done over the years. and at the end i would like to thanks both mr tariq alzoubi for all the efforts he made and all the success we reached with him as a fed president,he is truly missed.and to coach palma for all the hard work he did and also the patient he showed toward the whole situation.and i hope all the fans of jordan really start making some moves and noise for a solution to this big problem we are all facing.

* Interviewed by: Mohammed Malas, February the 7th 2010.


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