Basketball in Africa

BARELY three days left and with hopes of securing sponsorship for the forthcoming Inter-regional Championship tournament, dubbed 'Taifa Cup', fading away, the Tanzania Basketball Federation (TBF) insists the tournament will take place as scheduled.
TBF Technical and Competition Commission Director, Manase Zablon, told the 'Daily News' in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday the Taifa Cup slated for November 23- 30 in Dodoma will be held as planned, despite the federation's failure to get sponsors. "We are going to conduct the tournament as planned whether we secure sponsorship or not," he vowed.
"There are no plans to postpone the event which is a very important platform for identifying and grooming talent." Manase said they are still discussing with some sponsors and if they fail to get one they will move to plan B -- to request all the participating regions to foot transport, board and lodging expenses.
He said administration costs, which include officials and referees transport and per diem allowances, will be handled by the federation.
TBF requires over 58m/- to facilitate the week-long annual event which brings together basketball players from various regions across the country.
According to Manase, only nine out of the anticipated 26 regions beat Saturday's deadline confirming participation. However, the door is still open to other regions which are willing to take part in the event to confirm their entries.
Regions which have already confirmed are Tanga, Coast, Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Ruvuma, Katavi, Temeke and hosts Dodoma.
Temeke are competing as a region following TBF's decision to allow the three Dar es Salaam districts of Ilala, Kinondoni and Temeke to participate in the Taifa Cup as separate entities.