19 June 2007

KENYA : Champion Telkom Kenya team is disbanded

Story by PHILIP ONYANGO

It is now official that reigning women national classic basketball league champions Telkom Kenya has been disbanded.

Kenya Basketball Federation chairman Agina Wasonga in a press release said he had received an official communication from Telkom Kenya management that the team would not be participating in the league after all, bringing to an end earlier speculations that their could be a change of heart from the management after the women hockey team were given an okay to continue playing.

Agina said the federation’s efforts to convince the management to allow the team to take part in the league failed after it realized that all the players from the women team were retrenched last year.

“They have only allowed the Telkom men to continue playing in the league after all the women players were retrenched making it very expensive to start a new team altogether”, Wasonga said.

Wasonga said it was sad that such a strong team, which has the entire first five in the national basketball team had to be disbanded and asked other teams in the league among them Sprite Storms and Yana Milele to take advantage and recruit the stars.

“It has been a long struggle since we started negotiating with the Telkom management to consider sponsoring the team but all has been in vain, he said.

In the absence of Telkom, the KBF have nominated Sprite Storms who finished third in last years league to represent the country in the Club championships set for September in Rwanda.

“We have written to Sprite Storms and Cooperative Bank of Kenya to replace Telkom women and Ulinzi Warriors who were the national league champions at the regional championships to be held in Rwanda later in the year”, he said.

Agina predicted that the National classic basketball league would be very competitive since players from Ulinzi and Telkom Kenya will beef up the already existing clubs.

Meanwhile, Josephine Owino arrived in country at 8.45 pm Kenya time to link up with the national team in readiness for the ALL Africa games to be held in Algeria next month.

Owino confirmed she had received a return air ticket from the KBF and was upbeat about Kenya’s possibility of winning the continental crown for the first time ever.


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