Basketball in Africa

by Philip Onyango
Nairobi

The Kenya Basketball Federation is appealing to sponsors to come forward and assist the junior boys and girls teams ahead of the Africa youth championships set for Tunisia and Cairo, next month.

KBF national chairman, Paul Otula, while making the appeal, said the local game was on the rise and needed such high profile tournaments to move to improve further.
He said the junior teams posted an impressive performance in the zone five championships in Kampala, Uganda and were determined to perform even better when they take on the rest of Africa.
The girls' team is scheduled to leave in a fortnight for Tunis for their championships which will take place between October 2-12, while the boys will be in Cairo for the junior men qualifier from October 16.
Otula said the two teams need a whooping Sh7 million to effectively participate in the two championships failure to which the federation will be forced to pay a huge fine or be locked out of international competitions.
"The players did their part by qualifying and it is now Kenyans to come forward and support them while they prepare to tackle top teams in Africa", he said.

Appreciate talent

Otula thanked Fiba Africa for accepting to meet 50 percent of the girl's team's accommodation expenses and pleaded with the individuals and corporate sponsors to come forward and emulate Fiba Africa.
"If an international federation can come forward and appreciate Kenya's talent by chipping in on the team's accommodation, I think it is important that Kenyans encourage them by contributing even more", he said.
The girls' team he said started residential training in Mombasa Tuesday ahead of the championships while the official training program for the boys' team will be released later.
He said Kenya has the potential to compete with any top teams in Africa and appealed to the Government, companies and well wishers to come to their support.
The draw for the two championships will be held in Cairo on September 27.