THE Zambia Basketball Association (ZBA) is
targeting to woo the corporate world into sponsoring various programmes
lined up for 2014 aimed at developing the sport on the grassroots.
ZBA president Shawi Fawaz said in an interview that basketball was
one of the minor sports in the country that was under-funded and that
increased financial support to the sport would see Zambia produce world
class players that would deliver on silverware.
Fawaz, whose company Lunga Minerals Resources last week led by
example by refurbishing the Kwacha community basketball court at a cost
of about K30, 000, said ZBA would go flat out to seek support from the
business community.
He said offering financial and material support to sports was one of the ways various companies could pay back to the community.
"We have a lot of programmes that we need to implement this and these
targets require some funds, so we will need support from the business
community in order to achieve our goals.
My appeal to the corporate world is that we need to have a heart of
giving, especially to the minor sports like basketball which face
numerous challenges and we are aiming at attracting more support this
year," he said.
And Fawaz said the ZBA would pay particular attention to strengthening basketball at the grassroots.
He said Zambia had enormous basketball talent that needed to be
nurtured for future prospects, hence the introduction of the under 14
and 18 leagues in the northern region.
"We need to lay a strong foundation for our grassroots for us to have
strong future teams. There should be someone to take over from our
ageing players and if we don't invest in young ones, who will take over
from us, therefore, the grassroots is one of our priority areas this
year," he said.