NBBF president Musa Kida has underscored the place of hard work and strategic preparation in D’Tigress success at the 2022 Federation of International Basketball Women World Cup holding later this year in Australia.
This reaction came immediately after the draw ceremony which saw the team pitted in group B against France, Serbia, Japan, Canada and host Australia.
Kida while reacting said: “In the last four years, we have continued to shock the world and other teams are now paying some serious attention to us. To continue on that path, we have to work extra hard to sustain the tempo.”
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The federation president while stressing the importance of presenting its best effort for the tournament to be held between Thursday, 22 of September and Saturday, 1 of October in Sydney, said there is a need for robust players and early preparation.
In line with its continued resolve to give its national teams the best preparation as allowed by resources at its disposal, the Otis Hughley led team will play some grade A friendlies while in camp.
“This is where the Federal Government comes in through funding. Early approval and release of funds is at the core of all our proposed plans. Preparing for such an important tournament costs money and we will be banking on the Federal Government,” Kida said.
“We are no longer referred to as just another team from Africa. We are now being addressed as Nigeria based on what we have achieved in the last four years which saw us winning 3 Afrobasket titles, back to back world cup qualification and Olympics participation.”
Currently the lowest ranked team in the group, D’Tigress are unmindful of the task ahead as the sole representative of Africa at the global and a quest to pick one of the four available quarter-finals tickets.
4 Comments
D’Tigress will shock the world again in Australia as they did in Spain.
Presido well said but please bring back Evelyn Akhator to the team and other players like Atinde Ogunbowale etc that are willing to play for Nigeria. Tall and intimidating players like Aisha Mohammed the handlers know what to do. We can be a surprise package come Sept/October Fiba world cup. Let there be no victimization because they were asking for their rights. Our country’s federations are very good at doing that. Thank God there are no hungry players among our Dtigress. They just wanted to be appreciated for their effort, which they rightly deserved.
Actually, no one is being victimized. Akhator is still nursing an injury. Aishat is close to retirement while Abike Ogunbowale is still undecided about representing Nigeria.
Thanks for the update. Protest is one of the strategies of getting demands met if common reasoning fails to prevail. This is not well taken in our part of the world. So, it is good to know, there is no political witch hunt against them.
Thanks once again for the clarity.