22 August 2024
The organisation of a major basketball tournament appears to be in a shambles. Photo: Wikipedia user Justin Smith (CC-By-SA-3.0)
Less than two weeks from the U18 Basketball African Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa has yet to announce the national team, the venues for the matches, or the plans to accommodate teams from 12 countries across the continent, leaving young players across the country in limbo.
The tournament, officially titled the FIBA U18 AfroBasket, will be hosted in Johannesburg from 1 to 14 September.
Basketball South Africa (BSA), the organisers of the tournament, announced training squads for the South African national boys’ and girls’ U18 teams on 21 July 2023. The announcement was made in a letter addressed to all BSA members signed by the BSA secretary general, Sibongile Fondini. These players were picked from the inter-provincial U17 tournament in Bloemfontein in 2023.
Squads consist of 25 boys and 25 girls. But a final squad of 12 players with three reserves for each team is yet to be announced.
The parent of one of the players chosen for the training squad says players still don’t know if they’ve been selected for the national team, or, what plans have been made for accommodation or travel expenses if they do come.
The parent asked to remain anonymous out of fear that speaking out against the BSA could result in their child’s selection chances being affected.
The national squads were meant to be chosen after training camps in Johannesburg.
But BSA bungled the arrangements, giving players just a week to pitch up in Johannesburg in March, and backtracking on promises to pay travel expenses for players from outside Johannesburg , according to a letter sent by the Western Cape Basketball Association (WCBA) chairman Jason Mitchel to Western Cape members.
BSA then agreed to host a second leg of the training camp in Cape Town for Western Cape-based players. The camp, first set for 6 April, was postponed to the end of July.
But only one selector was sent to Cape Town to assess the eight girls and seven boys participating, said the parent. “The kids even had to supply their own basketballs.”
Since the players were split into two camps, some players who might be chosen for the national squad have never practised together as a team.
Venues and coaching have also become an issue as players still do not know where they will be playing in Johannesburg or who will be training them.
“The issues with BSA are not recent or isolated,” said the parent, who sent a letter in August to the Minister of Sport, Gayton Mackenzie, complaining about BSA’s organisation and the overdue announcement of the final squads.
The parent has yet to receive a reply and does not know if the minister has seen the letter.
Questions surrounding the delays in venue, team and coach announcements were sent to BSA in an email to Fondini. GroundUp is yet to receive a reply.
