Basketball team drops 'expensive' Ruhezamihigo

Rwanda basketball federation (Ferwaba) has left out Canada-based Hamza Ruhezamigo from the senior men’s team preparing for the upcoming 2014 Fiba Africa Zone V Championships. The regional tournament, which also serves as 2015 Fiba/Afro-basket and All Africa Games qualifier, is scheduled for September 21-28 in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. According to Ferwaba secretary general Richard Mutabazi, Ruhezamihigo, who is also the team captain, made high demands in order to honour the call. Among his demands was that he is paid $10,000 (about Rwf.7m) as compensation for the duration he will spend off work in Canada. “Ruhezamihigo demanded money which we could not afford because even the little we have is not enough to prepare a single national team. Therefore, we decided to leave him out and concentrate on working with the available players,” Mutabazi told a press on Friday. Ruhezamihigo was first selected to the national team in 2007, and has played for Rwanda in the last four Fiba Afro-basket championships in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. Financial constraints have forced the women team out of the zonal tournament and the men’s team will not engage in any friendly matches ahead of the tournament as had earlier been planned. The men’s national team has been in preparations under the tutelage of head coach Moise Mutokambali since August 16, where local-based players trained three times a week. The team has been boosted by the arrival of professional players such as Kami Kabange (City Oilers-Uganda), Nicolas Gihana (Nantes, France), Bradley Cameron (South Bend College -USA) and Kenneth Gasana (Al Waklah-Morocco). Rwanda lost to Egypt in last year’s Zone V final held in Tanzania and qualified to the African tournament on wild card, finishing 10th out of 16 countries. Meanwhile, hosts Uganda launched the week-long event at a press conference in Kampala on Friday. “We are more than delighted to host the Zone V and hope it gives us a competitive advantage” FUBAs president Ambrose Tashobya said at the launch. The tournament will attract nine countries including; title-holders Egypt, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and the hosts Uganda.

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Basketball team drops 'expensive' Ruhezamihigo