Cyrille Kalima has stepped down as head coach of national basketball league title hopefuls, Patriots Basketball Club with immediate effect. The development was confirmed by Kalima in a phone interview with Times Sport on Sunday.

"I am no longer Patriots coach. I have stepped down by mutual consent with the club, but I will be available to offer any assistance. My new job is too demanding (in terms of time), which is why I was forced to resign,” Kalima revealed.

He noted that, "Patriots are a big club; they need a coach who is going to be around the team all the time, something that I can no longer guarantee because most of the time I will be working upcountry. However, I’m still part of the club’s veterans’ team.”

According to our sources, Kalima is likely to be replaced by Tanzanian, only identified as Henry to lead the Kagugu-based club through the 2015/2016 season that started over the weekend.

Former UR- CoE (former KIE) and Kigali Basketball Club (KBC) coach, who tendered his resignation, last Wednesday, is taking up a new job as a technician with RIEM, a company that deals with network broadcasting towers.

Kalima, who also happens to be one of the founding members of Patriots Basketball Club, took over the club’s head coach role in late 2014 to lead the then league debutants to finish second in both regular league and post-season play-off games ahead of the likes of APR and Cercle Sportif de Kigali.

Despite leaving the club just days before the league start, Kalima is confident Patriots can go a step better than last season, to win the national championship.