RWANDA basketball federation, Ferwaba has since 2007 relied on foreign players in bid to put together s successful national team. Critics, especially in the region, refer to the men’s national basketball team as a ‘national team of Americans’. In fact, the basketball federation has even gone beyond what other federations have done like Ferwafa etc to bring foreign players who don’t have any connection to Rwanda.
RWANDA basketball federation, Ferwaba has since 2007 relied on foreign players in bid to put together s successful national team. Critics, especially in the region, refer to the men’s national basketball team as a ‘national team of Americans’.
In fact, the basketball federation has even gone beyond what other federations have done like Ferwafa etc to bring foreign players who don’t have any connection to Rwanda.
Fours years down the road since this culture of ‘naturalizing American’ hit the federation, what has Rwandans gained? Does the country get value for money?
The insistence on foreign players for the national team has only helped to improve the image of the country on the African scene and as a matter of fact, both the men and women’s hoops teams have improved in rankings over the years due to their performance in continental championships.
After winning back to back African Zone V titles, Rwanda reached the finals of the 2007 Africa men’s championship and managed to win one game against DRC in five matches played.
Gradual slip
They later emerged to earn 12th position beating South Africa, Mozambique, DR Congo and Liberia in continental rankings.
The national team which was under coach Veceslav Kavedzija that has competed in Afrobasket finals since 2007 to date include Valery Kajeguhakwa, Karim Nkusi, Rene Gakari, Louis Mugunga, Bertrand Muhire, Manix Auriantal, Hamza Ruhezamihigo, Trinon Mutabaruka, Robert Thomson, Gaylord Ndugu, Edouard Miller, Kenneth Gasana, Cameron Bradley, Artside Mugabo, Kami Kabangu, Mathieu Miller, Amandin Rutayisire, Carlos Mugabo, Ellis Kayijuka and Aboubakar Barame.
This is the team that has been alternated every two years to feature in continental championship.
Being runner-ups to Egypt in the zonal qualifiers, Rwanda qualified for the 2009 edition held in Tripoli, Libya. Just like Rwanda, all participants went into this tournament knowing that there was a lot to play for.
At the end of the grueling ten-days, it was Angola, Ivory Coast and Tunisia, who claimed the medals slots.
Rwanda were not in that class but going by the national team coach (Kavedzija Vaceslav)’s remarks, Rwanda’s display at the championship would be a good foundation for the 2011event which was held in Madagascar.
They finished 9th in the sixteen-nation tournament, climbing three slots from their 2007 performance in Angola, a good improvement on the continental rankings.
The team flew to Libya with a mission of getting to the quarter-finals and although the team came one position short of their target, resounding wins over Africa’s top nations like Cameroon, Senegal, Egypt and Cape Verde proved how lethal Vaceslav’s team can be.
In the group stages, Rwanda picked one win and lost two games. The win came against 2007 second runners up Cape Verde (77-67) while defeats were against the Arab nations of Morocco (84-85) and Tunisia (57-74). In all fairness, Rwanda deserved to win the Morocco game but switched off a little too early.
The team regrouped fast to see off Cape Verde but were soon criticized for failing to build on that win after going down to Tunisia. The team progressed into the round of eight where they were drawn with heavy weights Senegal, Central African Republic (CAR) and Cameroon.
At this point, even hanging onto their 2007 position (12th) seemed very unlikely. Only Vaceslav knew what his guns were capable of.
Rwanda’s 72-59 win over Senegal dominated headlines in Tripoli. It was the first major upset of the tournament. But similar to the group stage, the team buckled under the spot light losing 64-85 against CAR.
The team again came under criticism for failing to build on their wins. In fact, many predicted that Rwanda would be easily-beaten by Cameroon, but to their dismay, it was upset number two for the East African team.
The burgeoning partnership between Kenny Gasana and Robert Thomson tore Cameroon apart 82-69 to signal their intentions at the event. At this point, Rwanda had turned themselves into giant destroyers.
Despite these wins, Rwanda still missed out on their target of reaching the quarter-finals by just a margin of an inch but made the most of their classification games by beating hosts Libya (80-77) and long-time Zone 5 nemesis Egypt (78-75).
Putting these results together, it was clear that the team started playing well towards the end of the tournament partly because they had finally forged a combination.
The players hardly played together before the tournament and used the opening games trying to gel as a team.
Come 2011 in Madagascar, the team displayed its worst performances depleting hearts of home fans who expected them to even march into the semi-finals, at worst.
Being Zone V winners, Rwanda was making its third appearance into the tournament. However, the dropped to 13th position this time round after winning one match against Togo and losing two in Group B against Tunisia and Central Africa Republic.
Rwanda progressed to the knockout stage where they fell to Ivory Coast losing 72-80.
At this time, the federation was on a losing end and failure to build a sound foundation based on local young players.
‘Team of Americans’
FIBA international referee Didier Shema Maboko says that the reason the federation has relied much on foreign players on national teams is because they have been excited with the immediate results thus forgetting about building youth and professional structures to succeed these foreign players, most of whom have no business with Rwanda at the end of every tournament.
Another reason that was pointed out is that the federation wants to impress by winning every tournament that comes around and thus putting attention on foreign players and ignoring home and skilled talents, who in end up just wasting their potential since no one cares to nurture them right.
No matter how far the national team has gone to naturalize the foreign players, mostly Americans and Americans, Shema believes that the country has never gained value for money spent.
"We have spent much money on these players but if this money had been used in detecting and developing young players since 2007, Rwanda could be fielding a highly professional and strong squad in all major competitions.”
And the official noted that the culture of relying on the foreign players has portrayed a bad image for the nation. "Many people especially in his region believe we don’t have any talented players and that’s why they refer to our team as a team of American players.”
That said, Rwanda cannot sustain its dominance on the continent with almost entire foreigners unless focus is put on a professional structure for young talents detection and reduce the number of foreign players on the national teams.
This will eventually open up opportunities for real Rwandan players to play for their motherland; after all, Rwanda has always had the potential to become basketball powerhouse on the continent, with or without Americans and Canadians or even Congolese.
With a good investment, Rwandan young talents are the future of their country, especially in the long run. It’s only when they are exposed on the big stage that they would have the chance to catch the eye of these professional clubs in Europe or anywhere, it could be on the continent.