03 December 2006
KENYA : Basketball requires overhaul
By Dann O’were
The kind of basketball played in Kenya must change with time, or it will never improve at all.
These sentiments were expressed by Kenya Commercial Bank Lions tacticians Francis Ngunjiri and his assistant Emmanuel Ochieng.
They were reacting to the poor performance of their team in the recent Africa Masculine Club championships held in Lagos, Nigeria.
"Kenyan players lacked the physical appeal, they like to dribble too much and often tire out fast," said the tacticians who talked to SportFest on Saturday.
"There is no shot cut to success, our players must go to the gymnasium, carry weights and play the physical game. That is the only was to improve the standards of basketball in the country," said Ngunjiri.
He said for the game to grow and be compared with the rest of Africa, Kenya must develop a programme on how to improve the administration, coaching, refereeing and training of players.
"The programme is working well in Angola, Nigeria and other countries with whom we discussed, like Congo. They told us if we could have this in place, then we could compete with the rest on the continent," noted Ngunjiri.
They concurred that Kenya Basketball Federation must do something about the refereeing "because this is one aspect of the game that has let us down badly.
"We were surprised that things like three seconds that are so often the order of the day here do not get called by refs out there," observed Ochieng.
The kind of basketball played in Kenya must change with time, or it will never improve at all.
These sentiments were expressed by Kenya Commercial Bank Lions tacticians Francis Ngunjiri and his assistant Emmanuel Ochieng.
They were reacting to the poor performance of their team in the recent Africa Masculine Club championships held in Lagos, Nigeria.
"Kenyan players lacked the physical appeal, they like to dribble too much and often tire out fast," said the tacticians who talked to SportFest on Saturday.
"There is no shot cut to success, our players must go to the gymnasium, carry weights and play the physical game. That is the only was to improve the standards of basketball in the country," said Ngunjiri.
He said for the game to grow and be compared with the rest of Africa, Kenya must develop a programme on how to improve the administration, coaching, refereeing and training of players.
"The programme is working well in Angola, Nigeria and other countries with whom we discussed, like Congo. They told us if we could have this in place, then we could compete with the rest on the continent," noted Ngunjiri.
They concurred that Kenya Basketball Federation must do something about the refereeing "because this is one aspect of the game that has let us down badly.
"We were surprised that things like three seconds that are so often the order of the day here do not get called by refs out there," observed Ochieng.
# posted by afrbk : 15:24
