A member of Nigeria’s National Women’s Basketball Team who chose to remain anonymous has described the team’s inability to represent Africa at this year’s FIBA Women’s World Cup as a situation that has left her “distraught and pained” after “we worked so hard to qualify”.
This was reported by ESPN in an interview with the player who preferred not to have her identity revealed in the aftermath of Basketball World Governing Body FIBA maintaining Mali as Africa’s representative for the tournament in Australia even after Nigeria overturned a two year ban on competing in international basketball tournaments. (Click highlighted text to watch game highlights)
The ban was placed by Nigeria’s Ministry of Sports in its efforts to resolve a leadership crisis at the Nigerian Basketball Fraternity (NBBF). Earlier the issue was resolved and the ban was lifted but it wasn’t lifted early enough to prevent FIBA from reversing its decision.
Nigeria beat the likes of France to qualify to the World Cup after beating Mali to win the 2021 AfroBasket Championship.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
