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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter

THE Basketball Union of Zimbabwe (Buz) held national team trials at Khanyisile Sports Centre at the weekend where five male players made the cut for the provisional squad to take part at the Afro-Basket Zone Six qualifiers and Afro Can.

The two competitions will see the women’s and men senior national teams return to action after what has been a long hiatus.

Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana and hosts Zimbabwe are set to be part of the competitions which will run from February 20-28. The venue is the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF).

Coaches are already in the process of selecting their sides by conducting trials which kicked off in Bulawayo on Saturday.  Though the trials involved both men and women, the list of ladies who made the grade is still to be released.  Those who attended the trials were drawn from Victoria Falls, Hwange, Midlands and Bulawayo.

In the men’s division five players impressed the coaches and those are Brandon Gonyora, Norman Chimukanda, Andile Chirinda, Jordan Davids and Clayton Chikwengo. They will join others who were also successful in the trials from around the country.

Buz president Joe Mujuru said: “We are really excited to be having these competitions in Zimbabwe more so in Bulawayo. We have started working on our teams and l can say we are impressed with the response from the players and the work they are doing. We are confident that the coaches will field strong teams that will be able to compete.”

The senior men’s team has Kelvin Ben as the head coach. He is assisted by Theodore Weale and Mike Nhira while Francis Dube is the team manager.  Pondai Chitauro is in charge of the women’s side and is assisted by Gladys Phiri. – @innocentskizoe