Nyakinda unperturbed by online trolls

Ulinzi Warriors' forward Valentine Nyakinda's name has been the center of heated online discussions since the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) playoffs threw off. 

Calls to have the men's league champions disqualified for allegedly fielding an ineligible player, as the accusers argued that Nyakinda had not played the required three regular league matches to feature in the playoffs, were rife. 

However, the power forward, in an interview with Mozzart Sport says that the matter did little to destabilize him mentally as he remained focused on the assignment of defending the championship. 

"I was really wondering what was going on since I had played more than three matches in the regular season for Warriors. Either the people who felt the team needed to be disqualified were not aware or they had the wrong statistics. The matter was quickly resolved. 

The matter did not affect me much. I have played basketball for long and as players we always shut out the noise, forget the side shows and focus on whichever task is ahead," offered Nyakinda on the matter. 

Warriors faced Kisumu Lakeside in yhe best-of-three quarters, begin their campaign away in Kisumu. The soldiers lost the match 73-61. In Game Two, Nyakinda and Victor Bosire who had missed the first match away in Kisumu were available. 

Nyakinda contributed 15 points in the soldiers' 77-57 win to level the series. Again he sunk 11 in the decider Game Three as Warriors won 86-67 to book semis slot. The side swept Strathmore Blades 3-0 in the best-of-five semis to book a final slot. 

His involvement in the two matches prompted the calls for disqualification. However, the federation established that he had played the three required matches. Among the scoresheets presented as evidence was one against Embakasi Youth (EMYBA) whose authenticity was again called to question with some claiming it had been doctored. 

"EMYBA were not in action in the first leg of the league and when they requested to play their matches in the second leg, we allowed them to. This season we have been very lenient with teams as we understood some had been affected by Covid-19. Many teams that had fixtures against EMYBA in the first leg had assumed the points would be given as walkover but they later agreed to play. 

The Warriors versus EMYBA case was one of those. One of their matches was scheduled for 27 November 2021 at Nyayo and later moved to University of Nairobi (UoN). However, EMYBA did not show and hence the scoresheet that was used as evidence that Nyakinda was on the match-day list," explained KBF Secretary General (SG) Ambrose Kisoi. 

Correspondence between the two teams and the fixtures secretary Joseph Amoko seen and authenticated by Mozzart Sport also showed that the match was to be played on 27 November after previous postponements.