Years without victories: Who is funding the capital's basketball team?

Basketball player Alzhan Zharmukhamedov has been officially recognized as the first ethnic Kazakh Olympic champion, while Irina Gerlits is currently the last Olympic champion in basketball from Kazakhstan. The current generation of Kazakhstani basketball players can only dream of such achievements, despite the presence of a base club for the national team in the form of BC "Astana," as reported by Caravan.kz.

During the Soviet era, Kazakhstan was represented in the top league of the USSR basketball championship for men by a single club.

The Almaty basketball team SKA, established in 1978, not only broke into the top league of the USSR championship after 10 years of existence but also secured fourth place for two consecutive seasons. In 1992, now called "Zhulduz," the Almaty team won silver medals at the CIS championship. Over the years, outstanding basketball players such as Valery and Igor Tikhonenko, Oleg Meleshchenko, and Yuri Zhukanenko have played for the team.

With the acquisition of independence, what is now CSKA continued to maintain a high level, nurturing and accumulating strong players for the Kazakhstan national team. Until 2014, the men's national team of Kazakhstan did not fall below 7th place in the Asian Games, with the highest result to date being a bronze medal at the 2002 Asian Games.

In 2011, a new base club for the men's national basketball team of Kazakhstan, "Astana," was created specifically to compete in the open championship of Russia — the VTB United League.

However, by 2018, the men's national basketball team of Kazakhstan recorded a disappointing 13th place at the Asian Games, and in 2023, they missed the tournament altogether. In the VTB United League, "Astana" reached the playoffs in the distant 2018/19 season. Since then, BC "Astana" has not risen above 10th place in the VTB United League. In the Asian Champions Cup, BC "Astana" last won 3rd place in 2017, where the top scorers were "Astana" players Carter, Clemmons, and Anatoly Kolesnikov, whose real name is Anatoli Bose, and his only connection to Kazakhstan is his place of birth.

The current 2024/25 season in the VTB United League has been exceptionally unsuccessful for BC "Astana." The club is in last place, 12th, with only one victory. The official website of BC "Astana" lists the current roster: it can be seen that out of 14 players, 6 are legionnaires and 8 are Kazakhs. Additionally, two legionnaires left the team on November 1, 2024. The Kazakhstan national team is currently ranked 69th in the world. At present, the players are trying to qualify for the Asian Cup. In Group E, Kazakhstan is in last place after 4 matches with 5 points. The Kazakh team has achieved victories against India at home and Qatar away, but suffered defeats against Iran (a crushing 0:20) and India (69:88) away. Two matches remain — at home against Qatar and Iran. The top two teams will qualify directly for the final tournament, while the third-placed team in the group will advance to the qualification playoffs.

Returning to BC "Astana," an important question remains: "Who funds a basketball team that is not delivering victories and has slightly less than half of its roster made up of foreigners?" This question is particularly intriguing in light of the bill in parliament proposing a ban on funding foreign athletes from state, budgetary, and quasi-state companies.

On the team's website, the general partner of the team is listed as the "Samruk-Kazyna" Fund. In response to Caravan's inquiry, the fund could not directly answer whether they finance the legionnaires of "Astana" or not.

“In response to your inquiry, JSC "Samruk-Kazyna" (hereinafter referred to as the Fund) states the following. The Fund finances sports in accordance with the decision of the sole shareholder of the fund – the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The recipient of the funds allocated by the fund under the government decision is the single operator – the corporate Fund for the Support of the Tourism and Sports Industry (a subordinate organization of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan). The Fund for the Support of the Tourism and Sports Industry is also responsible for further distributing the funds received from the fund to sports directions/organizations and monitors their use. Thus, the distribution of funds is exclusively under the competence of the single operator. In this regard, we ask you to direct your inquiry to the Fund for the Support of the Tourism and Sports Industry,” the response to the inquiry stated.

After being directed to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, "Karavan" submitted an inquiry there and received an equally interesting response.

“Clubs are public associations and are guided in their activities by the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Public Associations (hereinafter referred to as the Law). According to Article 4 of the Law, the state ensures the observance of the rights and legitimate interests of public associations, and illegal interference by the state in the affairs of public associations and public associations in the affairs of the state is not allowed. Professional clubs are not funded from the republican budget; for more detailed information, we recommend contacting the sports organization directly,” was the response from the ministry.

Thus, determining whether the money of Kazakh taxpayers is spent on maintaining a team with legionnaires that occupies the last place in the VTB United League is a challenging task. Consequently, the question of how the law prohibiting funding legionnaires from the budget will be implemented in the case of a team like BC "Astana," and what impact it has on the development of basketball in Kazakhstan, remains open and requires special attention from lawmakers, who should close all potential loopholes in the document to prevent Kazakh money from being paid to foreign athletes.

Perhaps this will allow more Kazakh players from the academy affiliated with the team to have the chance to take the court and showcase their talents, delivering delightful winning surprises for Kazakh fans. This, in turn, should benefit Kazakh basketball: if the team provides more opportunities for the best Kazakh basketball players to develop their skills in competition with strong foreign opponents, it will eventually lead to improved skills among local trainees and enhance the positions of the Kazakhstan national team.