Ulinzi out to tame Terror in KBF's only assured Premier League match

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) leagues enter day two of resumption with five top-tier league matches scheduled but only one likely to be played. 

Men's league holders Ulinzi Warriors are scheduled to take on University of Nairobi (UoN) Terror from 4 pm at the university grounds in the only match assured of jumping off as both teams have been tested for Covid-19 as per the league and Ministry of Sports guidelines. 

The other matches of the day have UoN Dynamites scheduled to play Storms in the first match of the women's league on Sunday. While Dynamites have gotten their Covid-19 tests and are ready to go, it is unclear whether their opponent for the day will be available for the match. On Saturday, 12 June, Storms were scheduled to play Zetech University but both teams were unavailable for the match. 

"I still maintain that l have not gotten any communication of whether they (Storms) will be available or not and nothing has been made official about a cancellation or postponement so l will avail my team to honour my game as per the fixtures and correspondence with federation and fixtures department," said Dynamites' head coach Juma Kent. 

Eagle Wings, who were a no-show for their Saturday match against Dynamites are scheduled to play women's league defending champions Equity Hawks. 

KBF league off to a slow start

Another match has Africa Nazarene University (ANU), who won their Saturday league match against Kenyatta University (K.U) Oryx, taking on Zetech who were unavailable for their Saturday match. 

In the men's league, Equity Bank who did not play their opening fixture against Embakasi Youth (EMYBA) are set to play K.U Pirates who were in action on Saturday going down 67-55 to Strathmore Blades. 

All the teams that had been scheduled to play on the resumption weekend had signed a KBF resumption form indicating that they were ready to resume immediately. 27 team managers are said to have agreed to resume with a few stating they would join the league later this month and only two teams plan to join by July 3.

In a virtual team managers' meeting held on June 3 that led to the cancellation of that weekend's resumption plans and scheduled matches, sources say the agreement was for teams to resume play on June 12, having completed their Covid-19 tests and results verified.

It was also proposed that the league remains two-legged but the playoff to include the top four teams to allow the league to end on time. The first leg is scheduled to end on July 26 with the second leg proposed to start on August 1 and conclude on October 1 allowing for playoffs in November and early December.

Additional proposals are for a short, one leg, league to be played from January 2022 and end in May, allowing KBF to align the league to the FIBA calendar which starts in August. This has to, however, go through an Annual General Meeting (AGM) for approval.