The battle lines are drawn. The curtain comes down on the hectic basketball season in Qatar today when Al Gharafa take on El Jaish in what could be a thrilling final of the Emir Cup, the most lucrative tournament in the country. The match begins at 6.30pm at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall.
At stake for the winners is not only the glittering trophy, but also a whopping one million riyals. The runners-up would take home half the amount, but that would be little consolation. The Emir Cup is a trophy they would give their all to capture, such is the honour associated with it.
What would motivate both the teams is the fact it’s the last chance for them to finish the season with some silverware after Al Rayyan captured both the League and the Qatar Cup titles. They were hoping to make a clean sweep of the season but much to their disappointment lost to El Jaish in the semi-final playoffs of the Emir Cup.
El Jaish, of course are the defending champions and would be keen to keep the title with themselves, but in Gharafa they face a team who are known to give no quarters especially when they are playing the finals.
That was the case in 2010, 2011 and 2014 when Al Gharafa claimed the Emir Cup, and with such history behind them, are the obvious favourites, although El Jaish’s point guard Fadi Hani Abilmona would like to disagree.
“Al Gharafa are a strong team, no doubt about it, but we are the defending champions and we are determined to keep the cup to ourselves,” Abilmona said ahead of the final.
“We have a great team who play as a unit and we are well aware of Al Gharafa’s style of play. It would be a tough match and hopefully it would be El Jaish all the way,” he added.
Al Gharafa’s Salem Omar Abdelqader, also agreed the final is too tough to call.
“In a big match where there is a lot at stake it all depends on who can handle pressure well. Both teams have some excellent players who are capable of putting in a match-winning performance but I would like to believe that we are capable of winning our fourth Emir Cup title,” said Abdelqader, whose team ousted Al Sadd in the semis.