Basketball in Africa

RWANDA Basketball Federation (Ferwaba) plans to organise more competitions countrywide aimed at popularising the sport.

According to the federation chairman, Désiré Mugwiza, the more the competitions the more competitive the players and teams will become as Rwanda seeks to re-establish itself as a force to reckon with in the region and beyond at both club and national level.
He said, “I believe if we have more quality competitions, it will raise the level of competitiveness for the players as the more games they the stronger they will become and in the end, it will help the national team.”
The first competition of the season, ‘Agaciro Development Fund’ tournament is already out of the way, and Mugwiza hopes for more similar competitions countrywide throughout the course of the season.
League champions Kigali Basketball Club won the pre-season tournament after beating Espoir 75-65 in the final last weekend.
“We have plans to organise many competitions in all parts of the country in order to bring the fans back to watch the game. With this arrangement, I hope we shall unearth many young talents,” he stated.
Mugwiza said that there is need for all clubs to groom many young players, which will provide the national teams to have a large of pool of players to pick from.

The start of the 2012/13 national basketball league season has been postponed to the next weekend because some clubs have not submitted their squad lists.

By last week, according to the federation Secretary General, Richard Mutabazi, only three teams in men’s category had submitted lists of their players. They are Espoir, UGB and Rusizi. Others including the champions KBC, APR, NUR and KIE had not yet submitted theirs.

Initially, the new league season was supposed to kick off at the weekend, but it has been moved to next week.

The fixtures for the new season are already out. Newcomers 30-Plus will make their league debut against the defending champions Kigali Basketball Club, while CSK will host APR on the first day.