Basketball in Africa

THE Harare Basketball Association has begun their preparations for the 2013-2014 season with the renovations of their facilities as they seek to bring back the glory days of the sport in the province. The province held their elections last month that ushered in a new executive led by veteran coach Ngoni Mukukula and the league is expected to take off on the weekend of September 28 at various venues.
HBA spokesperson, Carlos Munda, said most teams are currently playing in community basketball pre-season events as part of their preparations for the season while the association is renovating the facilities.
Some of the areas to be renovated are Dzivarasekwa and Richwood Park courts. "The most exciting thing is that the new executive is gearing up for the league with the renovations of facilities which is a step up for the players and the clubs. As we speak now renovations are happening throughout the province," said Munda.
Munda said this coming season they will have one league for men unlike in the previous season when they had two leagues running as they were trying to create more competition among the clubs.
"We are still having pre-season community basketball every weekend. There is going to be one league with 12 teams, last year we had two leagues and it was a way of bringing competition to the league but now the new executive want to bring back the good old days, so we are going to have one league. For women there is also going to be 12 teams and we are starting a developmental league for junior players.
We are encouraging them to play and then have them in the main league when they are ready, we want them to play in their proper age-groups. It will be more of a B league, they used to play in the same league but there was no competition," said Munda.
Munda said they are expecting to hold a pre-season tournament but are yet to come up with the dates for the competition.