The Sunday Mail
REGIONAL basketball powerhouses Clube Ferroviario de Maputo and CD Primero De Agusto lead a cast heavy hitters expected to grace the Zone Six Club Championships qualifiers next weekend.
At least 12 teams, from five countries, are expected to converge at Bulawayo’s ZITF Hall for the October 21-29 tournament.
“We are very proud of the positive feedback we have received so far,” said Basketball Union of Zimbabwe president Joe Mujuru.
“Angola, Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi have all confirmed with the total number of clubs currently standing at 12. It could have been more but South Africa continues to snub these tournaments.”
It will be interesting to see what will happen should Zimbabwe’s Foxes and Harare City Hornets meet in the tourney.
The two fell out last year after the municipal side successfully sought the nullification of the results that made Foxes national champions at the High Court.
Hornets then snapped up Tatenda Tswatswa and Charity Mucucuti from Foxes and their sister club Vixens during the offseason.
Both incidents did not go down well with Foxes’ owner Kelvin Ben who revealed that his team had resolved not to play Hornets.
“We set as a board and ruled that we will not play Hornets,” said Ben. “We understand that by doing so we will possibly relinquish our title, but we are not happy with what happened in the National League.
“This issue had nothing to do with us, but we were the most affected and we have since demanded apologies from BUZ, HBA and Hornets. So far, only BUZ have apologised and we are prepared to make an even bigger stand.
“We stand guided by Fiba guidelines, but should we meet Hornets at the club championships, we are prepared to forfeit that match too.”
Newly-appointed Hornets Samuel Mutsvanga refused to comment on the tiff between the two clubs, preferring to concentrate on the upcoming games.
“It’s a jungle out there, and we just want to stake our claim in it,” said the Hornets gaffer. “The boys have been working hard and we intend to go out there and represent the nation with pride.”
