Basketball in Africa

THE East Central and Africa Inter-cities Basketball tournament men's category defending champions Uganda's Mukono, are in doubt of defending their title in the forthcoming tournament opening in Dar es Salam next week.
The event is scheduled to be held in Dar es Salaam from May 6 _ 11 at various venues including the National Indoor Stadium.
President of Inter-Cities Basketball tournament, Simon Msoffe, told the 'Daily News' that reports from Uganda suggest that the defending champions are likely not coming to Dar es Salaam due to financial hardship.
"The defending champions are yet to confirm their participation in the event and there are unconfirmed reports that they may not be able to participate in the event due to financial problems," he said.
Msofe also said that Mbeya and Mwanza cities have also not confirmed their participation in the tournament.
Arusha had already confirmed that they will not compete, meaning Tanzania will only be represented by hosts Dar es Salaam and Tanga.
"We are encouraging our cities Mbeya, Mwanza and Arusha to do whatever they can to ensure they participate in the event so they can represent the country in the event.
It is a great honour to lift the national flag in such international event," Msofe said.
Msofe named cities which have already confirmed their participation as Nairobi, Mombasa from Kenya, Kampala (Uganda), Juba (South Sudan), Mogadishu, Hargeisa (Somalia) and Garowe which is a team formed by Somalia Diasporas.
Other cities are Addis Abba (Ethiopia), Cairo (Egypt), Tanga and host Dar es Salaam.
Msofe said that communication with cities of Bujumbura (Burundi) and Kigali (Rwanda) have been inadequate so they are yet to confirm their participation in the event despite showing willingness of doing so at early stages.
Meanwhile, Msoffe confirmed that Azam Media Group are the official media sponsors of the event and they will televise the whole tournament from day one.
"Azam have agreed to be the media sponsor of the event, so all our matches will be televised live by Azam TV.
We are thankful for the sponsorship, but we are still searching for other sponsors to ensure the event is well conducted," explained Msofe.