Tom Maher, the coaching pacesetter for more than 20 years in women's
basketball in Australia, has taken the helm
of the Chinese women's team.
Maher, the former coach of the Australian and New Zealand national
women's teams, is the first foreigner to be appointed to the post.
The 52-year-old Maher will take the Chinese team for the Beijing
Olympics in 2008, a job he described as the "most sought-after in world
basketball".
While meeting the local media in Beijing on Sunday, Maher said that
he's determined to drive the team to new heights although he is well aware
of the risks of the job.
"In basketball coaching that's the
business. The management and the coach of the team must be happy with each
other. Or they go separate ways. That's just the business. It happens
everywhere and every country."
Maher will take up the task that will have as its first target the
Asian qualifiers in June for the world championships in Brazil in
September next year.
He's now in Xi'ning in northwest China to watch the qualifying rounds
of the National Games and get to know his players first-hand.
China hired Maher following the sacking of home-born head coach Gong
Luming after the team managed only a disappointing ninth place in the
Athens Olympics.
As head coach of the New Zealand national women's team, Maher helped
the Kiwi hoopsters see off China 79-77 in the preliminary rounds in
Athens, before finishing eighth.
Maher built the Australian team into a force to be reckoned with,
leading the team to a bronze at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and a silver
in Sydney four years later.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-23 09:25
