Basketball in Africa

by Majuto Omary

About Sh4 million are needed to stage the national basketball league (NBL). Lawrence Cheyo, secretary of the Basketball Federation of Tanzania (BFT) said yesterday that staging the tourney in Tanga in March depends on the funds being secutred.
He said the amount is required to cover expenditures for preparations, allowances for referees and other expenditures.
BFT coffers are dry and time is running out, he said, noting that this poses a potential threat to the holding of the tourney. He pleaded with potential sponsors to step in and save the situation which he termed as delicate.
We have completely dry coffers and time is increasingly becoming unfriendly for us to stage a successful championship as planned, he said.
Efforts to secure the funds have failed but the federation was still hopeful something might turn up, he said.
The winner of the national championship would represent the country in the East and Central Africa Club championship, he said.
It has become a habit for donors or sponsors to make a slow response and emerge to rescure events such as this at an eleventh hour, he stated.
This attitude was negative as sometimes it has resulted in unsuccessful or rush hour shoddy preparations, he stated. The national championship is for both men and women basketball teams, he said, urging the regions to stage championships in order to pick their representatives for the national tourney.
BFT has set up strategies to improve the standard of the game in the country but this needs to be backed by sponsorship, he further noted.
So far only Dar es Salaam has staged the regional tourney with Vijana basketball team winning the berth to compete in Tanga.
National title holders Don Bosco also from Dar es Salaam will have an opportunity to stage title defence in Tanga, while JKT Stars shall defend their title in the womens title chase.