Basketball in Africa

THIRTY teams have entered this weekend's Kwale Open basketball tournament sponsored by Coast Basketball Association. The tournament, which marks the first event on the CBA calendar this season, kicks off at Waa Boys and Waa Girls High Schools in Kwale County tomorrow.

Schools will form the bulk of the participants in the two-day tournament that has attracted teams from Kwale, Mombasa, Kilifi, Taita/Taveta, Tana River and Lamu counties. CBA chairman Ali Hilmy said arrangements for the weekend's event have been finalised adding and the event will start at mid-day. The event comes barely two weeks after CBA sponsored a team to Zanzibar to commemorate the Island's Mapinduzi Cup early this month.

Shimba Hills (Kwale) and Mombasa Baptist (Mombasa) are among the top schools that have confirmed participation. Clubs for the event include Congo Nets, Changamwe Rollers, Makupa Lakers and Malindi Nets. "We will have the men teams converge at Waa Boys while ladies will be at the adjacent Waa Girls," Hilmy noted. He appealed to teams from outside Kwale to keep time and enable the complete the fixtures as per the schedule. "Apart from the Likoni ferry factor, we have packed fixtures and we want all the teams to report on time," appealed Hilmy.