Basketball in Africa

This year’s national basketball league is expected to start without any delays after Kenya Basketball Federation scheduled the team managers’ meeting to take place in Nairobi on March 20.

According to the 2010 calendar of events released on Wednesday by fixtures secretary, Joseph Amoko, the meeting will pave way for the league to start on April 17. All the 32 clubs that will participate in the 2010 competition are expected to be represented.

Kakamega-based Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Blazers and Kenya College of Accountancy are the newcomers in the men’s Premier League while Nairobi’s Kenya Polytechnic will also make their debut in the women’s category.

Amoko said that it will be important to hold the meeting to review last year’s competition before the new season gets under way in April.

Last year’s national league had to be delayed for a month after the teams boycotted the opening fixtures demanding for the federation to call the team managers’ meeting to review the previous season, formation of the league committee and the competition rules, among other grievances.

Managers, led by veteran George Namake of World Hope, George “Nyundo’’ Omondi (KCB Lions), Dennis Chutte (Lomboritz) and Bosire Bogonko (Co-op Bank) were in the forefront demanding the review of the KBF constitution before the start of the 2009 national league.

As stakeholders, the teams wanted to have a say in the running of the game in the country because they felt some of the KBF branches that represented them, such as the Armed Forces, Nyanza and North Eastern, had no teams in the league yet they had three votes in the executive committee. The competition had to start late in May after the clubs were given a vote and fresh league competition rules drawn.

Amoko said after the managers’ meeting, there will be a pre-season tournament in Nairobi to which all the teams will be invited. He said the tournament will the give the teams an opportunity to gauge their strength in preparation for the national league’s first leg fixtures.