Ten Teams Set for Arusha Basketball Tournament

AFTER dally-dallying with the proposed event for over three weeks, Arusha Regional Basketball League will start showdown here from next Saturday drawing ten teams. An official from the Arusha Regional Basketball Association (ARBA), Bariki Kilimba said the league was initially meant to start last month, but was pushed forward to enable the organizers find appropriate venues for the event. Teams that have so far confirmed their participation including settling their fees are, Scorpion, Kings, Hooperz, Palloti, Hoo, Makumira, MS-TCDC, Spiders, Police Moran and Baptist-Kijenge. "All the Basketball courts that were being used in the past seem to be out of bound and these include the Soweto court of Kaloleni, whose management, the Arusha International Conference Center (AICC) failed to respond to our request to use them for the event," Kilimba pointed out. According to the official, the other Basketball venue was the Palloti court in the Unga-Limited Ward which is said to be occupied at the moment. At the end the organizers fell back onto the Sheikh Amri Abeid Stadium which is owned by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and the party eventually granted them permission to use it. But the Sheikh Amri Abeid venue, which also features several arenas, including football pitch, netball grounds, tennis and basketball courts, need some repairs, especially the field markings and therefore the ARBA officials had to raise nearly 600,000/- for the preparations and arrangements. The league will be played on weekly basis, games taking place on weekends only (Saturdays and Sundays) and therefore it may take three months until July before the basketball events are completed. ARBA is still yearning for an open space for the association to construct official basketball courts; "We already have sponsors ready to fund the project but we are crippled with lack of land for the intended arena," said Kilimba. Due to lack of venue, this year's round Kilimanjaro Open Basketball Cup scheduled for Arusha next September will be moved to Moshi while also the East African Cities' Basketball tournament which was also to be staged here may be shifted elsewhere.
Courtesy of: dailynews.co.tz