NEWLY-ELECTED Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (BUZ) executive led by retained president Addison Chiware faces a daunting task of transforming the nosediving fortunes of the sport in the country. MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
Chiware and his team were elected at the BUZ annual congress, at the National Sports Stadium last weekend.
Other members of the executive include the secretary-general Joe Mujuru, Forbes Shuva the competitions director and S’khumbuzo Ndlovu who will take charge of the technical and development portfolio.
Charmaine Chamboko will be responsible for women and youth development while Shinga Magede retained his position at the helm of the Athletes’ Commission.
Basketball in the country has recently been far from impressive both on and off the pitch.
Flagship teams have in many occasions failed to fulfil international assignments largely due to financial difficulties or else have performed badly on national duty.
The president was, however, optimistic of a bright future.
“I think not being able to attend tournaments will be a thing of the past now given the new dispensation of a stand-alone ministry of Sport,” Chiware said.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“Sport minister Andrew Langa has also promised us that we will have the full backing of the government. But we would be going into partnerships with multinational companies, a move which will see us ease some of our financial burdens,” he added.
Chiware said they were looking forward to the task ahead of them as they seek to take basketball to another level in the next four years with their focus being on winning medals in various regional, continental and international events.
“The next step is podium performance, we want to see the best level of basketball. We want medals starting from the junior level especially at this year’s Zone VI Under-20 Games.”
Zimbabwe basketball has clearly failed to make a mark on the international stage with a combined ranking of 113 and joint 24rd in Africa.
It is the women’s team, ranked 73th in the world that has continued to show promise, qualifying for continental tournaments, while the male counterparts have been nothing short of mediocre.
Half of the personnel in the previous executive failed to last the distance of their term citing other commitments. It would be interesting to see if the incumbent team see the term through in one piece.
