Bravehearts Men’s Basketball Team is itching to become the first Malawian team to go past the group stages at the NBA Africa Basketball League.
The men’s national basketball champions left the country yesterday for Zimbabwe where they will compete in Group E of the four-team West Division qualifiers, which tips-off today at City Sports Centre in Harare.
The tournament will be played on round robin format with a classification system and the top two teams will qualify for the Elite 16 Division.
The other three teams in their group are Basket Hounds from the host nation, Clube Desp D. CoS from Mozambique and Matero Magic from Zambia.
Bravehearts head coach Griffin Kalua said in an interview yesterday that while he is disappointed with lack of support from the corporate world towards their cause, he is optimistic that his team will achieve its target.
He said: “No Malawian team has made it past the first hurdle and we are determined to break the jinx. If we work as we trained, then I have no doubts about our capabality.
“What has frustrated me most though is that we approached a number of corporates for financial support, but the response has been lukewarm.
“Minority sports are not prioritised [when it comes to sponsorship] and being a businessperson myself, I understand why the corporate world goes for numbers, but at times numbers don’t always tell the whole story, with creativity, there is untapped market for these big firms. So, other disciplines also need to be given a chance.
“That said, we are heading there with inadequate resources, but the boys are geared to cause an upset as we are considered underdogs.”
Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) general secretary Peter Gomani said It is disappointing that the corporate world does not support basketball much when it comes to international representation.
He said: “Individuals are working so hard, but without support from the corporate world, our ambitions of shining at international stage will be hard to achieve.
“To our national champions Bravehearts, we are expecting them to qualify to the next level. Their preparations were good, we saw them playing a number of friendly matches locally and that they have also beefed up their squad with foreign players.
“We wish them all the best.”
