Well begun is half done, but why hide what you begin!?

KUALA LUMPUR (Mageshwaran's AsiaScope) - First things first. These are moments of great excitement for all of us involved in FIBA basketball. It's a proud moment for each of us as FIBA officially inaugurates its "House of Basketball". So congratulations and applauds for the fellow members of the FIBA family are well in order!

Much credit for the success of this sprawling edifice goes to a properly chalked out preparation. Well begun is half done, right?

At least four of the leading contenders for the top honors at the 27th FIBA Asia Championship - to be played in Manila, Philippines from August 1-11 - seem to believe so and have "put their best foot forward" already.

Hosts Philippines, the reigning champions from China, hot favorites Iran and last edition's silver medalists Jordan have all already begun touring foreign shores in search of the needed exposure and experimenting to get the 'ideal' combination to take a crack at the top honors right. This is not to say the others in the fray are lying idle, but this foursome has surely set the pace early.

And the manner in which the four have gone about their business, playing their cards very close to their chests, speaks for the wariness with which all of them are looking at the opposition. Simply put, none of them want to speak in detail about what they are doing in their training. Fair enough?

Philippines coach Chot Reyes even went to the extent of saying on his twitter feed that he is wary of the scouting reports from the games in Lithuania being made public, even to satiate the basketball-crazy fans back home. It took a lot of coaxing from the equally basketball-mad Filipino media to get some individual scoring details for building a promotion for the team.

Similar are the 'secretive' ways WABA giants Iran and Jordan have adapted in their camp from Turkey.

Iran and Jordan both played against the national teams of Algeria and Tunisia but none wanted to disclose the details.

China coach Panagiotis Giannakis has no such luxury with the reigning FIBA Asia champions being involved in some semi-official international friendlies. They began with the annual You-Yi Games against Australia's Boomers and now will go on to play the Borislav Stankovic Continental Cup, where nothing can be hidden.

But the clever man in Giannakis has found a way here too. Having played almost with full roster - the conspicuous absence of Yi Jianlian notwithstanding - Giannakis went into Game 4 of the You-Yi series leaving out what many would have thought the main roster. Wang Shipeng and Zhu Fangyu had already flown back to Beijing; and Guo Ailun along with Wang Zhizhi, Yi Li were all rested as Wang Zhelin took on the mantle of leadership and went to lead China to victory! Some might even say that Giannakis would have felt justified by his gamble!

I don't mean to question the decision of the coaches. I never will. Yet I really wonder if so much secrecy is really needed in preparation. Seen from a different point of view, such secrecy will only deprive the teams and players of much needed and much deserved mileage as they prepare for the competition.

All's well that ends well, I know. But it may help to tell the world how it all began!

So long…

S Mageshwaran

FIBA Asia

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