Nigeria's Participation In Pre - Olympic Tourney Is A Waste, Amedu

Former Board member of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, Colonel Sam Amedu, has shed more light on the reason why the Nigeria's male basketball team may fail to secure the ticket at the forthcoming Pre-Olympic tournament holding in Venezuala in June 2012.

Nigeria's D'Tiger was invited for the tourney after Angola that came second at the African championship is planning to withdraw from the qualifier.

According to him, the Nigerian male basketball team are not in good shape to contend with the world best in the sport, Greece, Slovania, Porto Rico among others that are far better in the area of organisation, commitment to excellence as their players are among the best ranked basketball players.

Amedu advised the NBBF to utilise the money earmarked for the Pre- Olympic tournament to the Nigerian basketball league, refresher courses for coaches, and provision of quality basketball facilities to further promote the sport, stressing that the NBBF would need between two hundred thousand(200,000) and three hundred thousnad (300,000) dollars to feature in the Pre - Olympic qualifier.

He said such huge amount of money could be expended on the Nigerian youth teams where they would be exposed to international tournaments in bid to acquire experience.