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MANICALAND Basketball Association has been forced to change its venue for the 2015 season games as the Raylton Sports Club basketball court is now being used for a motorcar sport popularly known as “tyre burnout”.
“Tyre burnout”, also known as “a peel out or power brake”, is the practice of keeping a vehicle stationary and spinning its wheels, causing the tyre to heat up and produce smoke due to friction. The Raylton basketball court has been extensively damaged by new sport in town.
One of the basketball posts was also hit by one of the cars. However, the MBA is crying foul, saying for so many years it had used Raylton Sports Club as the home of Manicaland basketball, hosting provincial, national and international games.
In an interview, MBA technical president Tonderai Shasha said the association had helped Raylton Sports Club in different ways for so many years and they feel like they have been pushed out. “We have done a lot for that club for so many years as we counted on it to be the home of basketball in Mutare and now the venue is now being used as a car dragging course. That sport should have been done at Mutare Sports Club on Manicaland Motoring Club.
“There are potholes and tyre marks all over the court and one of the poles was hit by one of the cars. This is the worst we expected because we helped in repairing the courts, fix the lights and the hoops for so many years.
“Moreover, whenever we held our games, a lot of people would come to the club, thereby boosting up their sales and now the responsible authorities don’t seem to be putting all that into consideration,” said Shasha.
He added that last Saturday the MBA was forced to change their venue because of the poor state of the court.
Efforts to get a comment from the club’s administration were fruitless at the time of going to press.
Online Reporter