Online Reporter
Zimpapers Sports Hub
ZIMBABWE will next month host the inaugural edition of the Zimbabwe International Basketball Open, a regional club competition.
The tournament, slated for October 29-31 at the City Sports Centre, is the brainchild of former Harare City Hornets founder and chairperson Sunny Mbofana.
“The Local Organising Committee of the Zimbabwe International Basketball Open is pleased to announce the staging of the first-ever Zimbabwe International Basketball Open, scheduled for 29-31 October 2026 at the City Sports Centre, Harare,” read a press release from the competition’s LOC.
“ZIBO is an elite annual tournament for regional national club champions and is officially registered with the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ).
“The inaugural edition will bring together national club champions from Zimbabwe as the host nation, Botswana, South Africa, Malawi and Zambia for three days of high-level basketball competition.”
“This has been a long-time dream,” Mbofana said.
“For years, we have talked about taking Zimbabwean basketball to the region, and now we are bringing the region to Zimbabwe.
“ZIBO is not just a tournament; it is a platform to expose our players, benchmark our coaches, and show that Zimbabwe can host elite international basketball.
“ZIBO aims to raise the standard of basketball in Zimbabwe, provide a competitive platform for local champions against the best in the region, foster regional integration through sport, and contribute to sports tourism and youth development,” the statement added.
Preparations for the event have recently gathered momentum.
“Preparations are at an advanced stage,” said Mbofana.
“We are just over a month away from the event and we have to push.
“We had a number of things that were stalling progress, but I think we have since unlocked some areas.
“For example, we were struggling to open a bank account because ZIMRA had some requirements that we had to meet.
“We have since unlocked that today (yesterday) and I think this is a basis for us to start moving ahead and make sure everything is in place now.
“We are looking at a number of areas, including the venue and sponsorship.
“We have had our people, the technical guys, going on the ground to check on areas that need to be sorted out, and we are still looking at the budget.
“Going forward, now that we have a ZIMRA clearance certificate, we should be opening an account and then going on the offensive to source sponsorship.
“And here, there are a number of big corporates in Zimbabwe that we are targeting,” he said.
While Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and Malawi are the original targets, plans are afoot to expand the competition to more Southern African countries in the future.
“In terms of who is supposed to come on board, we are looking at national champions from the region,” said Mbofana.
“You will find that each country in the region has some provincial or district leagues, but those culminate in a national league at the end of each year.
“So, what that means is that Zambia has a national champion, and so do Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
“For this edition, we are starting off with only Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Botswana.
“However, going forward, we would like to invite everybody from the region and make it into a big basketball tournament,” he said.
