Twimepoki Mangani
Lilongwe, August 16, Mana: Coach for Brave Hearts Ladies, Griffin Kaluwa has called for collaborated efforts in the development of well-rounded skillful female basketball players who will compete in the local leagues as well as represent the country at regional level.
Kaluwa made the sentiments in an interview with Malawi News Agency(MANA) on Wednesday as he analyzed the Brave Hearts Ladies recent invitation trip to South Africa for the Wits Bucks Women Tournament that run from 9th to 13th August, 2023.
While acknowledging that Malawi has teams that can compete at regional level such as Arkangels, Katana, Mystics and Kukoma Eagles, he admitted that the Malawian level of competition is not at par with that of South Africa which has good facilities, coaches and a pool of ladies to choose from.
“Our grass root development is not very good; we don’t have a lot of ladies playing basketball. Last year, for the national team, we could not easily find a tactically gifted point guard and that has always been an issue for us.
“We need to drill kids that can handle the ball intelligently, to put their mates in positions to excel because relying completely on players from other countries to fill out positions is not always healthy,” he said.
Kaluwa described the Bucks tourney as competitive as it offered ladies a chance to show case their talent.
He hopes such tournaments may also be staged in the country.
“We topped our group but lost to Corinthians BWA (35-32) an all-star team that was really good. We made tactically mistakes but we were also fatigued due to playing five games in two days since we arrived when the competition had already started,” Kaluwa said.
Bravehearts have three international players on academic scholarships; Mary Shibweche and Riana Damaris who was voted all Star, are from Kenya; Orlin Londo is Tanzanian while scouting is also being done in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania.
Captain of Bravehearts, Tama Mazulu hailed the experience of playing teams from South Africa and hopes their team prepare enough to shine in the upcoming Braveheart’s International Basketball Championship (BIBC).
“BWA is a fantastic team, our game with them was a thrill to watch. Saying we didn’t learn from our loss wouldn’t be smart, it’s actually a step forward to improving our game ahead of the BIBC,” Mazulu said.
The BIBC tournament which will attract teams from Zambia, Kenya and Tanzania is set for September 7-9, 2023.
In the group stage of the tourney, Bravehearts beat Hornets 75-20, defeated Wits University 38-28, topped MSE Queens 59-13, conquered VAAL University of Technology 42-21 and won against Phoenix Flames 35-23.
