BASKETBALL: Our ball is up there

ZIMBABWEAN basketball is enjoying some time in the sun after both the Under-16 boys and girls teams qualified for the AfroBasket Championships.

The girls did it in style, finishing first with a 100 percent record at last weekend’s qualifiers in Botswana, and should be fancying their chances of doing well in Mali later this year.

The boys earned their ticket by coming second.

The host for the boys’ tourney is yet to be announced.

The juniors join the senior men’s national team, who are already preparing for their AfroBasket Championships set for Tunisia in August.

Basketball Union of Zimbabwe president Addison Chiware hailed the qualification of the U-16 teams as a sign that the local game was looking up.

“Qualification by these kids means that the future is bright, but we need to make sure that we invest the necessary resources to ensure this achievement is not viewed as a fluke a few years from now.

“We need to start investing more into our coaching so that early skills development in primary school is undertaken by qualified coaches.

“Once this is done, both junior and senior national teams will benefit from quality players who would have gone through a technically astute cadet and junior player development programme.

“We need to not only ensure repeat performances in as far as qualifying for the tournament is concerned, but target at least top 10 finishes for all the three teams.”

Chiware said there were plans to establish vibrant national and junior leagues and acknowledged the support BUZ was getting from various stakeholders.

“We need to continue to motivate, acknowledge and support all those that are involved with our cadet and junior development programmes. These include but are not limited to the National Association of Primary Heads, the Educationists for Primary Sports Association, National Association of Secondary School Heads, Hoops for Hope and academies like Green Stars.

“As for high performance, we definitely need to get to our next level of development and that is to have vibrant national and junior leagues. We also need to keep competing at all levels of competition, namely the Fiba Under-16 and 18 championships, Fiba club championships and AfroBasket preliminaries.

“This will be motivated by the long term goal of launching a major offensive at qualifying for the Fiba World Cup,” he said.