Basketball in Africa

By Paul Munyuki
Harare

THE Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ) has again released a revised programme for the national championships.

The mother body was forced to revise the fixture after they came under fire from most of the clubs last month who even went to the extent of threatening to boycott the games. The tournament now has four pools, one more than the previous set-up, and all clubs will now have to fight for glory starting from the pools while the previous fixture gave byes into the quarter-finals to more than four clubs. The quarterfinals, semi-finals, and the finals will be played over three days in Bulawayo at the end of this month. The tournament has four pools namely Harare, Mutare, Bulawayo and Gweru.

The Harare pool has two teams from the capital and two from Bulawayo with the Mutare pool consisting of two teams from Mutare and the other two from Harare. The Gweru pool houses two Harare teams, one from Bulawayo and one from the Midlands while the largest of the pools -- Bulawayo -- hosts two from Harare and Bulawayo and one from Midlands. The preliminary rounds will be played on May 19 to 21 while the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals will be played on the 26th to 28th of this month as well. One of the club representatives said the fixture could be a burden to the Harare clubs.

"The Harare clubs are very concerned with the decision to take the quarterfinals, semi-finals and the finals to Bulawayo," said the official.