Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
THE Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (Buz) had to cancel their intended trip to Cameroon after failing to get Government clearance through the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) to train and play games as they prepare for continental meet.
Zimbabwe were scheduled to participate at the AfroBasket 2021 Qualifying Rounds that were expected to end in Yaounde, Cameroon yesterday where they would have joined hosts, Cameron, Cape Verde, Chad and South Sudan at the competition dubbed Wild Card Tournament.
Buz president Joe Mujuru said they had to abort planning for the West African trip after failing to get clearance.
Buz had last month sent their document to the SRC, basing it on Covid-19 protocols drawn by the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) for the Yaounde tournament.
“It’s unfortunate we didn’t get a response for our application to travel for the AfroBasket competition in Cameroon. We had applied to be given greenlight to start training and get players match fit for the tournament but that wasn’t successful,” said Mujuru.
The winner of the Wild Card Tournament group will participate in the second round of qualification for the 2021 AfroBasket in Group E with Egypt, Morocco and Uganda.
South Sudan had participated in the zonal preliminary tournament in Nairobi at the start of the year with Kenya advancing to the second round.
Zimbabwe, like South Sudan, had participated in a pre-qualifiers tournament that had Zambia and Madagascar.
Cape Verde who played Algeria in the Zone 1 and 2 pre-qualifiers will also have another chance of advancing to the final qualifying round while Chad will be playing for the first time. — @ZililoR
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