University league to conclude if Covid-19 is over by July
National University Basketball League (NUBL) organiser James Mavisi says the inaugural tournament that was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic will be concluded if the spread of the disease is contained and ban on gatherings lifted by July.
The seven-week tournament was set to conclude on March 15. Zetech University were set to play Africa Nazerene University (ANU) with Strathmore University taking on Riara University in the semis slated for Saturday March 14.
Third place and final matches were scheduled on March 15 but Kenya recorded her first Covid-19 case on March 13 and consequently all public gatherings were banned.
“In the event that this ban is lifted in the next two months, the tournament will conclude before we begin preparations for the league that is scheduled to jump off in September.
If the situation does not change by August, then the best decision will be to cancel the tournament.
Teams will need time to start proper training before competition and that will spill over to September,” said Mavisi.
Kenya University Sports Association (KUSA) was using the tournament as a test before adopting it as their official league format for men’s and women’s basketball come September.
The September league will see two more universities, probably from outside Nairobi, added to the men’s league.
The inaugural women’s league, the suspended tournament involved men’s teams only, will only include teams from Nairobi.
“We would love to have the more than 45 universities in the country involved in this league but we are slowly building towards that.
Eventually, we will have Division One and Two to accommodate as many schools from across the country as is possible.
We are working towards bringing in sponsors to make this possible,” added Mavisi, who has largely used his own savings and donations from friends to run the inaugural men’s tournament.
