Basmal rebuilding sport’s image

The Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) has attributed the sport’s lack of sponsorship to loss of attraction in the past few years.

Basmal has since said it is working on rebuilding the sport’s to ensure companies come back to sponsor it at top level.

Basmal president Raymond Banda said this in reaction to why the association is failing to find sponsors for the country’s three regional leagues as well as a national competition.

Despite leagues struggling to get sponsors, Basmal has secured a K620 000 (about $3 712) sponsorship from Nedbank for a social tournament for players aged over 35.

“The game has not been attractive both in terms of performance and patronage. We are strategising to ensure that we should develop a good product so that when we approach sponsors, we should be able to sell the sport well.

“We have for the past two years introduced strong youth development structures to bring back the excitement among youngsters,” said Banda.

He added that sponsors of any tournament look forward to gaining something from their investment.

“Sports sponsorship is a win-win situation and for Nedbank, they are targeting a group of people who are their customers.

“For the leagues, we also have to look at sponsors that will get a return from the youngsters. We are talking to a number of sponsors and this year we will get sponsors,” he said.

The last sponsored basketball tournament at top level was the Sprite National Championship in 2007.