The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Basketball

  • VICTOR OCHEI WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

    : Togo, Benin, Ghana confirm participation

    As the stage is set for the 2nd edition of the Sir Victor Ochei Wheelchair Basketball Championship, three West African countries have confirmed participation at the championship scheduled to run between 18th-23rd February, 2013, at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

    The three countries according to the technical director, Wheelchair Basketball Federation of Nigeria, (WBFN),Tamuna Adoki are Togo, Benin Republic and Ghana.

    Adoki, while speaking on the forthcoming championship which is expected to attract wheelchair Basketball team and clubs from all states of the federation disclosed that the foreign participating countries will arrive the country Sunday while the pre-match meeting for all teams hold Monday at the Indoor Sports Hall.

    The WBFN technical director further informed that the following states have confirmed their participation at the championship which attracts N5m as price money and the states are: Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Delta, Ogun, Bayelsa, Edo, Rivers, Imo, Kwara, Niger and Kaduna, adding that, “there are rooms for more states to register for the championship Monday in order to encourage more participation of states and clubs, and I am optimistic that many more will register.’’

    The winner of the championship will go home with N2m , while the second place team gets N1.5m and the third placed team pocket N1million while the remaining 500,000 naira would be shared among the best behaved team, best player, best dressed team among others.

     

  • Basketball season may commence in a fortnight

    Francis Gbiri, the Secretary-General, Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) on Monday said the new season would begin as soon as stakeholders say they were satisfied with a new draft proposal for the league.

    Gbiri told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in a telephone interview that there were possibilities that the league would commence soon after the stakeholders would have endorsed some changes contained in the proposal.

    “We had a board meeting recently and all we resolved were contained in the draft proposal for the stakeholders to consider.

    The stakeholders include club owners, coaches and our major sponsors, Multichoice Nigeria and the Zenith International Bank.

    “They will look into the draft and outline their own contributions, then get back to us on areas that require amendments,’’ Gbiri said.

    According to him, the league has been facing challenges in areas, such as good officiating, expanding the scope of the competition to include more clubs as this can lead to increase in number of games.

    Seun Akinwole captain of Lagos Island Basketball Club and Akeem Akinsanya team captain of Chariots Basketball Club told NAN that `the league would be more attractive if more games were played’.

    The DSTV Basketball League and the Zenith Women basketball league ended in July 2012 with Royale Hoppers defeating Kano Pillars to become the men’s champion while champions of Zenith Women Basketball League were First Deep Water.