The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema
TEAMS affiliated to the Harare Basketball Association have threatened to boycott the National League if it is held in Bulawayo for a second consecutive year.
The HBA teams have told the Basketball Union of Zimbabwe they will not take part if the governing body does not give them a “satisfactory” explanation as to why Bulawayo has been chosen to host the competition again.
The National League is slated to run from April 29-May 1.
Harare, which is home to both male and female defending champions Vixens and JBC, has given BUZ an April 20 ultimatum.
In a to BUZ, the teams said, “The provincial clubs have requested that the mother body issue out a satisfactory answer as to why the (National League) is being held in Bulawayo before Harare has had the chance to host.
“Clubs also seek to find out if there is a system, how it works, how long it has being used and if it is still being used?”
HBA clubs held an emergency meeting last month and “unanimously” agreed to boycott the National League if BUZ did not adequately explain its decision.
“Provincial clubs also pointed out that should they not get a timely and satisfactory answer; they might be forced to unite and bar any Harare provincial team from attending the 2015/16 edition of the championships,” said the clubs in the letter to BUZ secretary-general Joe Mujuru.
Mujuru was not available for comment while BUZ president Addison Chiware directed all questions to his lieutenants, saying he was not aware of the letter.
BUZ competition’s head Forbes Shuva said: “Yes, we have received the letter and have made note of the province’s concerns.
What you need to understand is that there is no favoritism or foul play as some affiliates would like to have you believe.
“We are not doing Bulawayo province any favours or trying to buy votes for next year’s elections, instead everything was done by the book.”
Mujuru explained why they settled for Bulawayo.
“Masvingo was supposed to host these games, but failed the test when we went to assess their preparedness and so we decided to give them the inter-provincials which require less work.
“We then looked at an alternative and Bulawayo is by far the best suited and most organised province within our jurisdiction.
“They are coming from just hosting the same tournament and as such will require less work in terms of preparations.
“The HBA will get their reply soon enough and hopefully they will appreciate where we are coming from,” he said.
