Women basketball body applies for Fiba participation
The National Women Basketball Committee (NWBC) has written the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) applying for a slot at the 2019 preliminary World Cup qualifiers.
The NWBC is in the process of forming the first-ever national women basketball team, which according to chairperson Lisungu Banda-Moyo, should be ready by September this year.
“What we have done is set the process. We want to get involved in international competitions and we have applied to Fiba for 2019 World Cup preliminary games participation scheduled to start in 2017,” she said in an interview with The Nation on Saturday in Lilongwe.
“We will use the All-Stars National Championship scheduled for later this month to select players. The good thing is that we already have thriving leagues in all the three zones in the country,” said Banda-Moyo.
She said there are 10 teams in each of the three zonal leagues.
She also announced plans to travel to neighbouring countries in September to play friendly matches.
“Before that, we might play Nigeria right here at home. The Nigeria men’s team might visit the country early September and we have asked their federation to send along ladies team. We are waiting for their response. We really are serious about forming the national team and it’s going to happen,” said Banda-Moyo.
She said currently they have been engaging the corporate world to find segmented sponsorship.
“We are working to finding sponsorship and have embarked on approaching companies to invest in women basketball,” she said.
Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) general secretary Edgar Ng’ong’ola confirmed the Nigerian connection.
“We have a great relationship with the Nigerian Basketball Federation [NBF] and we have entered into talks. If all goes well they might camp in the country for three weeks to play our team. It is planned to be a cost sharing project, but nothing has been finalised yet. But so far talks are going on well,” said Ng’ong’ola.
