A friendly basketball challenge on micro blogging site Twitter saw Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin, along with his parliamentarian colleagues, lacing their sneakers yesterday.
Khairy had last month issued the challenge for a three-on-three basketball match with the Twitter tag #YBsCanJump, and netizens, including a member of the Malaysiakini staff, responded by asking them to prove it.
The friendly rivalry in cyberspace culminated in yesterday's YBsCanJump basketball tournament at Berjaya Times Square in which Khairy, along with Deputy Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Gan Ping Sieu and Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan, took to the court.
Aside taking on the winners of the tournament in an honorary match, the BN quartet, or Team YBs, also responded to challenges from Twitter in 'demo matches' against two teams, including Malaysiakini .
From Twitter taunts to the court
Team Malaysiakini , led by senior writer Andrew Ong comprised of chief reporters Hafiz Yatim and Kuek Ser Kuang Keng, and journalist Lee Long Hui.
For days, both teams have been exchanging
Twitter
taunts. Thus the stakes were high - the losers would walk away with bruised egos while the winners would take home bragging rights.
Soon after the tip-off in the five-minute game, Malaysiakini's Hafiz drew first blood from 15 feet but this was quickly answered by a hobbling Saifuddin, who was playing despite nursing a foot injury, also with a long-range equaliser.
Three minutes in, Khairy drove to the hoop and made use of his height advantage for Team YBs to take the lead with a lay up. But Lee followed up with a pass to an unmarked Ong moments later and made it 2-2.
The referee was extra strict on the Malaysiakini team, resulting in them earning more fouls, giving Team YB two opportunities on the free-throw line, but they failed to convert.
YBs' star player injured
Right before the final whistle at five minutes, Lee managed to bury a jump shot from the baseline to give Malaysiakini a hard fought 3-2 win.
When approached after the match, Team YBs jokingly said that they were unfairly beaten.
"Well, you know, as you can see our star player (Saifuddin) is injured today, and I think the floor was very slippery... the referee was against us and all these things put together, we missed a narrow win," quipped Khairy.
"I saw the Malaysiakini guy talking to the referee (but) of course we don't claim anything," added Kamalanathan.
"We don't believe in excuses but it was obvious," chipped in a laughing Gan.
Unity through basketball
When asked about the injury, Saifuddin said he had suffered a fracture from a fall during an earlier exhibition match.
"I'm upset because I can't play the whole game but still, I have three very commendable players. So, I come in one minute, that's it, but I enjoyed the game and it's good to see so many young people out," he said.
The tournament, added Gan and Kamalanathan, was intended to get young people engaged and to foster unity.
Tournament organisers had urged teams to ensure that their team had a mix of races and several teams, including Malaysiakini , managed to fulfil this requirement.
"It was all good fun, sports, unity and getting young people out to make the game, and also we would like to make (elected) representatives more accessible," said Khairy, who later asked for a rematch with Malaysiakini .
While Malaysiakini has yet to decide on the offer, it does not dispute the notion that these four YBs really can jump.
