Players from the CNVLD women’s wheelchair basketball program practise at the Battambang Rehabilitation Centre last month. Photograph: Tim Page/Phnom Penh Post

The one-of-its-kind Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Program, set in motion last year at the Battambang Rehabilitation Centre by the Cambodian National Volleyball League for the Disabled (CNVLD), is heading for a major expansion with four new teams forming in Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh in the next three months.

The highly disciplined program is being sustained by support from the International Red Cross and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Rehabilitation.

“It is ground-breaking. To see the Government contributing directly to a program like this through accommodation, transport and food, it is a great step forward,” CNVLD secretary Christopher Minko told the Post yesterday.

In early August last year, famous Australian wheelchair basketball coach Garry Connor conducted a successful two-week training stint leading to the creation of two well-heeled teams in Battambang.

Next month CNVLD will form two new teams in Kampong Speu and two more in Phnom Penh by the end of June to create a six-team roster for the National Championships, proposed to be held in November.

The Cambodian team to participate in the year-ending seventh ASEAN ParaGames in Myanmar will be picked as early as September.

The CNVLD is in the process of securing the services of Jess Markt, an expert trainer from the US, to train all teams, coaches and referees, as well as addressing the training needs of the national squad.