Morans skipper desperate for return of on-court practice
Kenya Morans skipper Griffin Ligare has joined the calls for sporting activities to return as the team, set to take part in the Afrobasket qualifiers scheduled for November 27-29 in Senegal, is yet to resume on-court training.
The men’s basketball team qualified for the competition in January when they beat five other nations, including Luol Deng-led South Sudan, in a pre-qualifier hosted at the Nyayo Stadium.
The Morans are placed in Group B of the qualifiers with hosts Senegal, record title holders Angola and Mozambique.
FIBA Africa last week released the first and second leg fixtures where Morans will face the hosts on November 27 before taking on Angola the following day and conclude the first leg action against Mozambique.
The second leg fixtures are scheduled for February 19 to 21, 2021 with the order of play maintained in three days.
Costly endeavour
Ligare is hopeful that the report on resumption to sports protocol set to be launched this morning by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed will allow athletes get back to team training immediately to enable those who have upcoming competitions to get enough time to prepare.
“Since qualifying for the competition in January, we knew we would be in action in November and have been preparing mentally for the same.
The fixtures’ release is confirmation that nothing has changed despite the pandemic and we have three months to prepare.
At an individual level, we have tried to remain fit but that is just a drop in the ocean for the task ahead,” said the captain.
He continued: “We need on-court practices now. Mentally, we are in a good place. We knew we would be up against Africa’s basketball powerhouses, we cannot take that away from our opponents.
However, the team is under no pressure as we are determined to fight to the last whistle.”
An initial plan was to have local based players train in small groups in turns but availability of a venue slowed down those plans.
“In addition to unavailability of the venue, the risk of infection was also a worry.
The ideal situation would be all players operating from a secured location, after testing, but that is a costly endeavour. ,” he added.
According to the skipper, only one player in the squad, Denmark-based Tyler Ongwae, has resumed team training as their league is set to resume soon.
Ronnie Gundo is able to play some pick-up games in the USA, but nothing structured, while the rest of the players are faced with the same challenge of having not resumed team training yet.
The Cliff Owuor-coached side will be looking to upset the form book and be among the top three teams from their group to qualify for the 2021 Afrobasket.
The Morans last featured in the competition 27 years ago when Kenya played hosts to the games.
