Zimbabwe arrives late for Afro-basket tourney

Sport
The Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (Buz) the national women’s team arrived late for the Afro-basket Women/Fiba World Championship tournament in Mozambique

IN AN embarrassing moment for the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (Buz), the national women’s team arrived late for the Afro-basket Women/Fiba World Championship tournament in Mozambique and failed to fulfill their opening match against the hosts on Friday.

Sports Reporter

According to the International Basketball Federation website, the Zimbabwean women’s national team did not arrive in time for the opening match.

“The tournament’s opening was marked by the absence of neighbouring Zimbabwe who did not arrive in Maputo by the time of their game against hosts Mozambique.

“Home fans sold out the Maxaquene Gym, but could only applaud their heroes and will have to wait until September 23 (Monday) to see both teams play,” the Fiba website reads.

Efforts to get a comment from the Buz national teams general manager Shinga Magede believed to have travelled with the team, were fruitless yesterday.

Buz had sent out a distress call for funding to participate in the games and could have got the funding late to travel to Mozambique for the tournament.

Meanwhile, African champions Angola beat Nigeria 60-46 in Group B while Senegal beat Egypt 100-69 in Group A on Friday.

In the second game in Group A, Mali beat Cape Verde 73-62 while Cameroon dispatched Kenya 61-39 in Group B.

In another Group A match Ivory Coast beat Algeria 56-48.

Zimbabwe are in Group A with hosts Mozambique, Senegal, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Algeria.

The Afro-basket competition is a platform for qualifying for the World Cup to be held in Turkey next year and Zimbabwe’s chances of going through are slim as they face African giants in the tournament.