Basketball: KBF to streamline league fixtures

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) will streamline the running of its national leagues over the next one month, the federation’s assistant secretary-general, Angela Luchivya, has said.

Luchivya admitted that there has been poor running of local league fixtures which has resulted in the play-off finals spilling over to the next year.

“We are collaborating with institutional and university teams to give us a proper academic calendar to allow us draw league fixtures to run smoothly, ” said Luchivya.

She said a bulk of university teams competing in the leagues have contributed to mismanagement of fixtures through late requests of change in fixture schedule occasioned by examination schedules and closure of campuses. This has resulted in some teams playing more matches than others.

“We will crack the whip and award walk-overs on a 20-0 basis against teams that fail to honour their fixtures in line with the competition rules,” Luchivya, who is a former player and founder of women’s league team Storms, said.

Out of 65 teams taking in the five categories of men’s and women’s leagues, 22 are from universities.
They are: University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Zetech, Strathmore, Multimedia, Africa Nazarene, KCA-U, USIU-A, Kisii and JKUAT.

Luchivya added that frequent change of fixtures has turned away fans and measures of returning them back are in place with the start of Friday night matches.

She promised that after the court injunction to stop the league was lifted, KBF secretariat is working round the clock to improve standards of the game. Players and fans had gone to court claiming the the Annual General Meeting was not held as per the constitution on May 14.

“We now provide music for entertainment, refreshments and food in the gymnasium which has continued to attract fans,” said Luchivya.

She said the federation will improve on communication which has been an area of concern to inform the public of new developments in the sport.