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Lovemore Dube Senior Sports Editor
BASKETBALL Union of Zimbabwe are looking forward to using the surface and other ancillary equipment that was used at the Africa Union Region 5 Under-20 Youth Games when they play host to the inter-provincials early next year.Joe Mujuru, the national basketball body secretary-general, confirmed yesterday that the inter-provincials would be held in the capital on February 7.

“The date has been set for the inter-provincials and it’s February 7 in Harare. We hope we’ll use the surface that we had for the Region 5 Games together with short clock and an electronic scoreboard.

“We’re saying these are the standards we’re now pegging for all our national competitions. So our prayers are that the equipment will’ve been officially handed over to us as the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe,” said Mujuru.

The Kings coach said the provincial associations would be expected to field their senior teams and Under-16s. Both sets of age groups would be involved in international competitions hence the games would be good exposure for the players and that national coaches would be able to identify the best there’s in the country.

The seniors will take part in the All-Africa Games qualifiers. Winners of the regional competition will proceed to Congo-Brazaville for the continental showpiece. He said earlier this year Bulawayo played host to the inter-provincials where seniors and Under-20s took part.

“We deliberately had the Under-20s in action because of the Youth Games. So the Under-16s will take part as they will be involved in qualifiers for the African Championships in Botswana. We want to give them an opportunity to face real competition and also for the purposes of team selection.

“In the last inter-provincials we’ve seven provinces in action. We hope to get better than the last competition,” said Mujuru. He said they were hopeful they would find common working ground with schools which is where the junior players are found.

“We hope we’ll find common working ground with the National Association of Secondary Schools Heads in connection with the Under-16s by next week. That’s where the players are and we want to assemble good teams for the Botswana qualifiers.”

In the absence of the old Kodak Championships, the inter-provincials remain the most popular national tournament and three provinces have had the better of the exchanges in recent years — Bulawayo, the Midlands and Harare.

Basketball proved that it was still a popular sport with good attendances at the just ended Region 5 Youth Games.