By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
THE Zambia Basketball Association (ZBA) is targeting to woo the corporate world into sponsoring various programmes lined up for 2014 aimed at developing the sport on the grassroots.
ZBA president Shawi Fawaz said in an interview that basketball was one of the minor sports in the country that was under-funded and that increased financial support to the sport would see Zambia produce world class players that would deliver on silverware.
Fawaz, whose company Lunga Minerals Resources last week led by example by refurbishing the Kwacha community basketball court at a cost of about K30, 000, said ZBA would go flat out to seek support from the business community.
He said offering financial and material support to sports was one of the ways various companies could pay back to the community.
“We have a lot of programmes that we need to implement this and these targets require some funds, so we will need support from the business community in order to achieve our goals.
My appeal to the corporate world is that we need to have a heart of giving, especially to the minor sports like basketball which face numerous challenges and we are aiming at attracting more support this year,” he said.
And Fawaz said the ZBA would pay particular attention to strengthening basketball at the grassroots.
He said Zambia had enormous basketball talent that needed to be nurtured for future prospects, hence the introduction of the under 14 and 18 leagues in the northern region.
“We need to lay a strong foundation for our grassroots for us to have strong future teams. There should be someone to take over from our ageing players and if we don’t invest in young ones, who will take over from us, therefore, the grassroots is one of our priority areas this year,” he said.