Basketball: D’Tigers Set for South Africa Invitational

Nigeria’s senior men’s basketball team, D’ Tigers, will participate in a four-nation invitational tournament in South Africa in March, as Fiba Africa has yet to pass its verdict on last weekend’s aborted 2015 Afrobasket/All-Africa Games qualifiers against Burkina Faso.

Nigeria will play Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa in the invitational tournament, aimed at preparing the squad for this year’s Afrobasket and All-Africa Games qualifiers.

Nigeria and Burkina Faso were scheduled to play a first leg qualifying match last weekend in Ouagadougou, but the host nation delayed the match, citing logistics problems.

D'Tigers Against China at the 2013 Stankovic Cup.
D’Tigers Against China at the 2013 Stankovic Cup.

Burkina Faso also requested that both home and away matches be played on home soil, which the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has since rejected.

There have been suggestions that the Burkina Faso basketball team were not prepared for the double header.

The NBBF has requested that Burkina Faso forfeit the game according to Fiba statutes. It also wants Fiba Africa to compel their West African counterparts to reimburse the NBBF for cost incurred during the period of preparing D’Tigers for the failed first leg encounter.