SINGAPORE — The next national basketball men’s head coach is likely to be a foreigner, after it emerged yesterday that 15 out of 16 candidates who applied for the soon-to-be vacant post hail from Australia, Spain and the United States.

In response to TODAY’s queries, the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) revealed yesterday only one Singaporean applied to be the successor of current head coach Neo Beng Siang, who is stepping down after more than 12 years at the helm.

The 47-year-old, who led Singapore to bronze medals at the 2013 and 2015 South-east Asian Games, decided not to continue because he wanted to spend more time with his family. The Singapore Slingers coach will relinquish the national post at the end of this month.

BAS honorary secretary Ong Swee Teck told TODAY the national body was pleasantly surprised by the number of applicants for the job, as well as the calibre of the candidates. Applications for the position closed late last month.

“We will wither down the initial 16 to five candidates next week,” said Ong, who declined to say more about the candidates apart from the fact that 15 of them are from Spain, Australia and the US.

“From that five, we will select one or two candidates to come down to the BAS for our further assessment. The BAS president (David Ong) and Sport Singapore will be involved then too.”

Ong hopes the new head coach can “continue the good work of Neo” and raise the “international standard” of the team. He also expects the coach to come up with good developmental programmes for the different age-group teams, so as to ensure a strong pipeline of young talented players for the senior national team.

“A foreign coach can, of course, introduce a new style of playing to our team and offer a new perspective because he has more experience in the international arena,” he said.

Men’s national team captain Desmond Oh, who joined the national team when he was 18 and has been under Neo’s wing ever since, hopes that he and his team-mates will be able to adapt well to the new incoming coach’s style. “I hope that he brings us better results, such as in this May’s SEA Championships in May and next year’s SEA Games — hopefully a silver or gold medal then,” said the 29-year-old.

Ong also told TODAY that a European team will also feature in the Merlion Cup, which the BAS plans to stage in September after an absence of 20 years. TODAY had previously reported two Chinese teams had confirmed their participation in the eight-team invitational tournament, which will be held at the OCBC Arena at the Singapore Sports Hub.

Another four teams are expected to submit their application by the deadline at the end of this month.

Ong said, however, that whether the tournament can be held in September will depend on the BAS’ search for sponsorship support.

“We are all excited by how the tournament is shaping up, but we are still looking for more sponsors, including a title sponsor,” he said. “By the end of March, if the response is not good, the committee has to make a very hard decision (on whether the tournament can take place as scheduled).”