Teboho Molapo
MASERU — The Lesotho Basketball Association (LBA) league is set to bounce back next month after a year’s break.
LBA public relations officer Palo Mohlotsane told the Sunday Express yesterday that the league was shelved after the 2009-2010 season due to lack of funding.
“We did not have a league last season because we did not have any funds to run it,” Mohlotsane said.
He added that they also took time to restructure the league and this had paid dividends.
“I can say our financial woes have now been solved.
“We don’t have a big budget but we depend only on a grant from the Sports Commission,” Mohlotsane said.
He said the standard of basketball had improved and a newly formed team, Shines, managed to reach the Winter Tournament final last month before losing to Bashana Baeso.
The new season was scheduled to start this month but it will not kick off in August.
Mohlotsane said the postponement was due to the unavailability of three of the league’s eight teams — Rovers from the National University of Lesotho, Limkokwing and Lerotholi Polytechnic.
“The start of the league has been postponed because teams from Roma, Limkokwing and Fokotholi will not be able to take part. The league will now have to start at the end of August,” he said.
The second round will start in January next year, he added.
“Before we were looking at Bashana Baeso, Rovers and KTA All Stars as the best teams in the league but now we also have Shines,” Mohlotsane said.
Mohlotsane said the association was still far from coming up with a national team.
The last time Lesotho had a basketball national side was in 2003 and since then the country has not participated at the African Championships, World Cup or Olympic qualifiers.
“We are at a point where we are restructuring,” Mohlotsane said. “We want to focus on the national Under-17 and Under-20 teams.”
The LBA was working to raise funds.
“Yesterday (Saturday) we held a tournament in Mafeteng to raise funds for our teams,” he said.