20Moorosi Tsiane
The 2015/16 National Basketball League (NBL) kicks-off today at Lehakoe Courts.
Lesotho Basketball Association public relations officer Molupe Ratšolo told the Sunday Express that 10 male and eight female teams would take part in this season’s campaign.
Ratšolo further said starting this season, male winners and runners-up would qualify for the Africa Club Championship, while the female winners and their runners-up go to the Swaziland Invitational.
“Our league campaign starts on Sunday at Lehakoe and so far, 10 teams have confirmed their participation with only Rovers the only side we are not yet sure about. On the female side, we have got eight teams. I think this is going to be one of the toughest seasons in the history of our basketball and we are trying to see what we can do to inspire more competition among the teams in the form of prizes.
“But so far, we can confirm that starting from this season, our male and female winners and runner-ups will be rewarded with participation in the Africa Club Championship and Swaziland international tournament, respectively,” Ratšolo said.
According to Ratšolo, the association had also introduced some changes into the game.
“We decided to change the name of our Development League to B League. This is because it is played by college students and other players we believe are past the development stage. Because of these changes, we will be implementing a new league for youngsters below the age of 13 years,” he said.
The KTA All-Stars player also noted the other change is that teams would no longer be divided into two pools but play each other as a league on a two-legged basis.
“In the past, our league was divided into two pools and then the top four teams would have play-offs. However, this time around, all the teams in their different leagues would play each other in a round-robin format because we wanted to extend the time our programme takes,” said Ratšolo.
Ratšolo is however, concerned with the female teams.
“Eight female teams registered for the league last season but four withdrew in the middle of the season due to different reasons, so we just hope the same thing will not happen again this time around.”