Basketball in Africa

Pius Ayinor
Lagos

The junior national men's basketball team, the Junior Tigers, have taken the lead in the African junior tournament holding in Durban, South Africa after going up with three straight victories.

The young men are taking hold of the African continent just as Nestle Nigeria Plc and the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) get set to start another Milo Basketball Clinic that would produce future basketball greats for Nigeria. The Milo Clinic has been marked out to begin on Monday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna.

But before the Nigerian kids embark on the beginners' programme in Kaduna the Junior Tigers may have won one of the tickets to the next FIBA World Under-19 championship in Canada. Monday night the Nigerian youths defeated their counterparts from Angola 64-48 in one the toughest pre-championship matches. The win over arch-rivals and highly rated Angolans was the third straight win for Nigeria.

The Nigerian campaign in South Africa began last Saturday with the 105-72 win over Kenya. That result was followed by another win over Guinea with the result reading 85-51.

In some other games Congo defeated South Africa 71-46 in the opening game. Angola cut Kenya 86-42 while Mali defeated Mozambique 73-34. The championship ends the weekend.

In Kaduna when the Milo clinic begins on Monday, it would run to the 12th before starting the following day in Enugu and wrapping up on the 19th. The event would hold at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium and it will be the very first edition in centre known as the Coal City.

The programme for beginners would end up in Lagos from the 20th to the 26th. The Lagos event would hold in three centres of Syrian Club, Ikoyi, First Bank Courts at Satellite Town and the National Stadium, which would host the closing day events.

The Finance and Control Director of Nestle Nigeria Jacques Vauthier assured that this edition would also be quite lively.

"For the past 12yearsss of sponsoring the clinic, over 50,000 kids have benefited from the programme. Therefore there is no gain saying that the game has not developed over the years recording annually, about 4,000 kids benefiting," he said.About 4,500 kids are expected participate in this year's programme.

Their first Vice President Chief Segun Erinle represented the NBBF. He said the Federation remain very committed in their partnership with Nestle.

"We remain committed to Nestle as partners and say thank you. And today we pushed to request that Nestle assists the Federation financially as Nigeria plays two world championships in Japan and Brazil," he said.