Basketball in Africa

By Majuto Omary

The Intercity Basketball Coordinating Committee (IBCC) has confirmed that Mombasa city would host the regional tournament next year.

The President of IBCC, Simon Msoffe said yesterday the tournament would be held in Mombasa in March, but the exact date of the kickoff would be disclosed later.
Msoffe said they were looking forward to expanding the tournament and invite more cities across Africa to the contest.
"We want to bring more challenge in the basketball championship, we are still discussing the possibility of involving many cities," he said.

He pointed out that they would consider inviting big cities like Pretoria and the like to participate in the regional event.
"Our aim is to expose our players internationally, we have seen rare talents in this year�s tournament," said Msoffe.

The body invited Pretoria but due to inevitable reasons they did not show up.
The president commended the participation of Harare and Mogadishu saying they brought new challenges to the tourney.
"Harare and Mogadishu have political problems, but they displayed skills that we did not expect," he said.
The Harare team managed to finish third in the just ended tournament while Mogadishu failed to post a single victory.

This year's event was dominated by Kenyan teams, Nairobi women team retained their title after beating Dar es Salaam while Mombasa triumphed over Dar es Salaam (men) to clinch the lift the trophy.