By GRACE CHAILE –
THE International Basketball Federation (FIBA) African Zone has set July as deadline for countries in Region Five, who include Zambia, to stage the qualifying series for the Africa Under-18 Championships.
FIBA’s directive comes after no country in the region, formerly Zone Six, volunteered to take up the mantle of hosting the qualifiers this month.
Zambia Basketball Association (ZBA) general secretary, Mwembe Kaona said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that FIBA had set July as deadline for all respective African regions to hold their Under-18 qualifiers.
Kaona said Madagascar would host the Africa Under-18 Championships finals in August.
He said ZBA would send a boys and girls team to the qualifiers where Zambia needed to win to reach the finals.
“The ZBA committee has resolved to take part in the Under-18 Africa Championships and will have a boys and girls team. The teams have to first emerge winners of the Under-18 Region Five in order to be in the finals,” he said.
Kaona said ZBA will soon name the Under-18 national side which would be developed along with the Under-20 national squad.