Basketball in Africa

By Fadhil Iddy, Mwanza

Mwanza city council has donated bus tickets to their regional team ahead of the Intercity Basketball Championship slated for Mombasa, Kenya.Briefing reporters yesterday, Mwanza Regional Basketball Association vice chairman Adam Nyoni said the 12-man squad will depart on Sunday.

The biggest basketball tournament in the Eastern and Central Africa will commence on March 22 and climax on 28.Nyoni expressed his gratitude to the council for their support and urged the team to fight relentlessly to bring the trophy home.

"They have trained together for about a month now, therefore we're optimistic they will win us plaudits," he said.Nyoni stressed: "They will meet tough teams, but out team has many talented players, so we expect them to win the tournament."He named the players as skipper Bahati Kizito, Saimon Cheru,

Sebastian Marwa and Amon Sembelia.Others are Amrani Sofian, Osward Magoko, Richard Paranguu, Francis Nyoni, Victor Zakaria, Bundala Charles, Timoth Ngarura and Mriri Lubasha.The official said the team would be under tutelage of head coach Amiri Mohamed.

Others cities setting sights on the coveted trophy are Arusha, Dar es salaam Zanzibar,Nairobi, Kampala, Jinja and Mombasa.