Basketball in Africa

Nigeria's failure to win a medal in both the male and female basketball events of the just concluded 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia has been attributed to lack of adequate planning and preparation for the global fiesta.

Sam Ahmedu, a FIBA/AFABA match commissioner told THISDAYSports yesterday, that Nigeria was a sure bet for medal before the first jump ball "but poor planning and preparation robbed us of such glory in both the male and female events."

The retired army colonel, who is also a member of the board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), insisted that going to the Games with just 10 female players and 11 male was the first signal that "we were doomed to fail. That decision alone meant that undue pressure would be on the few players available."

Hear him: "Technically, there is no way you can blame the players for failing to win any medal. To have gone to Melbourne with just 10 female and 11 male players was not a wise decision. By that, we shot ourselves in the foot even before the first jump ball. So why should any reasonable person expect miracle from the players given the type of handicap they had in Melbourne?"

Ahmedu, who has been consistent in his criticism of the manner of picking coaches for the national basketball teams, also faulted the relegation of the coach with the most players in the team to the background.

"Those days when Nigeria was doing very well in the sport, coaches of First Bank team were usually given priority because their players dominated the team. That was how Coach Agboola Pinhero led the male and female teams to Scotland in 1991 to win bronze at the Commonwealth championship. Coach Toyin Sonoiki also did the same in 1995 with the male team. Is it not now a shame that several years later, Nigeria is finishing fourth in a competition we had the chance to win bronze or silver?"The NBBF board member, who just returned from America where he went for a consultancy on the sport, decried the decision to camp the team in Australia before the Games.

"The team was supposed to have travelled for training tour in January. It could not embark on the trip. Going to Australia was wrong because Team Australia basketball was one of the contenders for the title, it was like going into your enemy's territory to rehearse your war plans," he observed.

The Nigerian male and female basketball teams lost in the battle for the bronze medals to England after raising the hope of compatriots with good runs at the group stages. The female team in particular was very disappointing, losing by just three points, a situation that led most of the girls to break down in tears after the last second sounded out.