19 October 2012
NIGERIA : Canada Writes Nigeria for Basketball Friendly
The Canada Basketball Federation has requested for an international basketball friendly match with the Nigeria men's senior basketball team to be played next year.
Disclosing this in a chat with Trustsports yesterday, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) President, Mallam Tijani Umar said the Canadian Basketball Federation has written to the NBBF requesting for the friendly duel.
Umar, who described the development as a positive one, said this was as a result of the D'Tigers' excellent showing at the Olympics qualifying tournament in Venezuela and the London 2012 Olympic Games.
He said the Federation is keen on honouring the request, as it would serve as preparatory tournament for the African Basketball Championship slated for Cote d'Ivoire next year, saying the Federatyion has already started preparations for the African basketball championship.
"We have started preparations for the Nations Cup in Cote d'Ivoire next year, and playing some of the best teams in friendly matches is part of our vision. We welcome top games during summer with countries in Europe, the Americas and African teams.
"We have an annual agreement with the Brazilian Basketball Association to play our national team every year also", he stated.
Mr Rowan Barrett who is the new Executive Vice President/Assistant General Manager of the Canadian senior men's basketball programme said in the request to the NBBF that: "We look forward to continuing to build on our relationship and we understand how vital communication can be, to helping our teams and athletes attain the best possible training, leading into competition.
"In the short term and long term we hope to work together to achieve our common objectives. Steve Nash will lead our men's team as the new General Manager, with Maurizio Gherardini maintaining his role as Managing Director of Canada Basketball and Jay Triano will be the head coach.
We wanted to reach out to you in regarding to planning for the next year and the possibility for an international friendly, between our countries. We are planning to be in Canada and Europe (Aug 3rd - Aug 12th), next summer."
Disclosing this in a chat with Trustsports yesterday, the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) President, Mallam Tijani Umar said the Canadian Basketball Federation has written to the NBBF requesting for the friendly duel.
Umar, who described the development as a positive one, said this was as a result of the D'Tigers' excellent showing at the Olympics qualifying tournament in Venezuela and the London 2012 Olympic Games.
He said the Federation is keen on honouring the request, as it would serve as preparatory tournament for the African Basketball Championship slated for Cote d'Ivoire next year, saying the Federatyion has already started preparations for the African basketball championship.
"We have started preparations for the Nations Cup in Cote d'Ivoire next year, and playing some of the best teams in friendly matches is part of our vision. We welcome top games during summer with countries in Europe, the Americas and African teams.
"We have an annual agreement with the Brazilian Basketball Association to play our national team every year also", he stated.
Mr Rowan Barrett who is the new Executive Vice President/Assistant General Manager of the Canadian senior men's basketball programme said in the request to the NBBF that: "We look forward to continuing to build on our relationship and we understand how vital communication can be, to helping our teams and athletes attain the best possible training, leading into competition.
"In the short term and long term we hope to work together to achieve our common objectives. Steve Nash will lead our men's team as the new General Manager, with Maurizio Gherardini maintaining his role as Managing Director of Canada Basketball and Jay Triano will be the head coach.
We wanted to reach out to you in regarding to planning for the next year and the possibility for an international friendly, between our countries. We are planning to be in Canada and Europe (Aug 3rd - Aug 12th), next summer."
# posted by afrbk : 11:44
