The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema
Deputy Sports Editor
KURAI David Pick has no qualms about breaking the hearts of many women, and history buffs, in the Zimbabwe basketball fraternity.
In fact, the Harare Basketball Association (HBA) president derives a little pleasure and humour out of it.
For the past couple of weeks, Paidamoyo Nyamakanga had been the talk of the town as she stood to become only the third woman to lead the HBA.
Nyamakanga and Pick were the two candidates vying for the presidency at last weekend’s HBA elections, which the latter won resoundingly.
“Well, Paidamoyo Nyamakanga is a competitor,” said Pick.
“She has a lot of fight in her and truly gave me a good run for my money.
“Fortunately, the best candidate won and I have no regrets about that,” he said.
If Nyamakanga had won, she was going to be the third female to lead the association after Andy Viriri and Bertha Faranisi.
Pick is now in his second term, having taken over mid-term from City Hornets’ Sunny Mbofana in 2018.
And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, as sport remains under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic.
But experience is the best teacher.
“My first term in office, having taken over from Sunny Mbofana, was very challenging.
“At that stage, Zimbabwe was going through a currency instability phase and in order to mitigate that, we had to come up with creative means to scrounge around for the few dollars we could get our hands on.
“We also had an energy crisis at that time and this threatened to shorten our match-days.
“Clubs were also struggling, and fulfilling fixtures became a cumbersome exercise.
“Fortunately, we found solutions to some of our problems, even going so far as to procure a generator so that we could facilitate our evening games.”
They also introduced a “Super Saturday” concept where the top four teams in every division would square up once or twice a month to bring crowds to basketball courts.
However, the virus later struck after only 80 percent of games had been played.
It is this experience that Pick is banking on as he prepares for his first full term.
To combat the virus and overcome obstacles that lie ahead, Pick has a simple but effective strategy.
“Sport has returned and I have been re-elected into office, so the work starts now.
“I see light at the end of the tunnel, as we will soon be able to play basketball again.
“I would like to thank the Government for their efforts to get us to this point.
“The ball is now in our court,” he said.
In terms of targets and strategy, Pick said: “I have always believed in building a strong HBA brand.
“I couldn’t do it during my first term, but intend to start and finish that project during the next four years.
“For starters, the goal is to establish a strong developmental programme, as we need to get those structures that feed into our club and national systems in place.
“A strong HBA brand must also empower its women, and I would like to see more female coaches in the province.
“My dream is to see women come up and coach some of these big teams like Raiderz, Varsity and Foxes.”
He believes there is need for the association to get everyone on board and eventually attract sponsorship.
“Due to Covid-19 protocols, we will not have fans at games, but plans are afoot to get all these games to be broadcast live on various media platforms.
“This will not be for the Covid-19 environment alone, but something we hope to continue even after it is safe to get fans back.”
