Under-16 inter-provincial basketball tourney dates set

Mutare Girls High Schools.
The two-day event is set for July 28 to 29 with all the provinces expected to field two teams in both sections.
The tournament, which is being hosted by the National Association Secondary Schools, will see the best players being selected for the Confederation of Southern Africa Sports Association to be held in Namibia.
Nash head in charge, Thompson Katanda, said all provinces have confirmed their participation in the tournament.
“Each province is going to field two teams. The only difference in this year’s competition is that we are selecting the players who will represent Zimbabwe at the COSASA Games to be held in Namibia from August 28 to September 3.
“We expect the competition to be very high because we have had players being selected by BUZ (Basketball Union of Zimbabwe) to represent Zimbabwe at different competitions and that in itself is a very big incentive for the players,” said Katanda.
Katanda said they were happy with the progress they have made in the development of basketball at junior level and working with the national association has proved fruitful.
“This tournament has been running for over a decade and we have actually come up with a number of good players who have represented Zimbabwe at national level.
“There is a positive development of basketball in the country.
“It’s unfortunate that the main leagues are not absorbing those players and they end up just playing for schools only,” said Katanda.
Buz competitions director, Simon Lawson, said they were working with Nash to promote the development of basketball. “We will try and pick the team that will go for the high schools’ competition to be held in Namibia.
“This is a Nash event and we are there to assist them to make sure that everything flows.
“We are also focusing on the National Youth Games were we are going to select a team for the Under-20 that will represent Zimbabwe at the Zone Six in December, in Zambia,” said Lawson.