Mikia Kalati
Lesotho Basketball Association vice-president, Francis Koma, says lack of sponsorship and facilities is hampering the development of the sport in the country.
Koma told the Lesotho Times this week that players have been contributing their own funds in order to stage competitions, which he said was impacting negatively on the game.
“It’s disappointing that we have had to depend on contributions from the players to host competitions,” Koma said.
“This lack of funding is a huge challenge facing not only us, in basketball, but local sport in general. The whole situation will make it difficult for local sport to transform from its current amateur state to the required professional level that would enable the athletes to earn a living through their God-given talent.
“For instance, we have failed to take our development programmes out of Maseru to the other nine districts of the country because of the same funding problem, while the national team’s activities have stopped completely as it is very expensive to cater for international competitions.”
Koma also said the country’s current political instability had also “somehow” affected domestic sport.
“We were supposed to host several teams from outside the country for our Independence competition (from 3-5 October), but they ended up cancelling their trip citing our political unrest. The cancellation came as a blow to the association and players, as we were looking forward to a highly competitive tournament.”
Diamond from Botswana were the only foreign team at the tournament, which also included Bashana BA Heso, Sigla Philippines, Lichocha, Roma Rovers and defending champions KTA All-Stars.
However, Koma said players had shown great determination to play the game with their “personal sacrifice” to ensure competitions were held.
The annual high school basketball competition, he added, was playing a big role in the development of the sport. This year’s edition of the competition was held in May in Maseru.
“We must thank Metropolitan Lesotho and the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC), for sponsoring the high schools tournament, which is playing a big role in the development of the game in our country,” Koma said.
