A chance for talented Elephants to shine

SHEFFIELD (Julio Chitunda’s African Message) – The newly-elected chairman of the Ivory Coast Basketball Federation, Boubakari Touré, speaks the players’ language, and is seeking to meet their needs.

Touré has started a new era at the helm of “The Elephants” and is taking aim at transforming the game in the country.

Finishing runner-up and fourth in the last two editions of the AfroBasket has proven to be not good enough for the Ivorians who seek to turn their well-rated and talented squad into a powerhouse in Africa.

In its history, Ivory Coast has won the continental championship on two occasions (1981 and 1985), to qualify directly for the FIBA World Championship in 1982 and 1986, played in Colombia and Spain, respectively.

Now they want to do more and better.

With the likes of Mohamed Kone, Guy Edi, Mamadi Diane, Pape-Philipe Amagou & Co, they are fairly entitled to believe that they can win the African title in the short term.

The trio of Kone, Edi and Diane combined to score 230 points in seven games at AfroBasket 2011. That's just two points less than the total scored by the trio of Makrem Ben Romdhanem, Marouan Kechrid and Salah Mejri for Tunisia, the new African champions.

The difference is that the Tunisians sealed their place to the 2012 London Olympics, while the Ivorians failed to qualify for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) after a 77-67 defeat to Nigeria in the bronze medal game of the AfroBasket.

Poor preparation was to blame, players such as Mohamed Kone said at the time, recalling bitter memories from two years earlier when they nearly won the trophy.

In Libya, after a 35-34 lead at the break of the AfroBasket 2009 Final against Angola, Ivory Coast saw the then defending champions come back to a 82-72 win.

“The Elephants” did enough to qualify for the FIBA World Championship 2010 in Turkey, where they won their first and only game in the history of the tournament by beating Puerto Rico 88-79 in Ankara.

But it is this “almost there” that the Ivorians have had enough of.

To make sure their ambition to improve goes as planned, the Ivorian Basketball Federation has elected a new president, a successful and experienced man in the sport industry. He is someone who appears to speak and share the players’ thoughts.

Boubakari Touré, the chairman of successful club Abidjan Basketball Club (ABC), won 56.4% of the votes in November at the exact same time that FIBA Africa chose the country to host the AfroBasket 2013. Mahama Coulibaly came in second with 32.1% of the votes, while Emmanuel Amichia claimed 11.5% of the votes.

Touré is well aware that his new personel must not fail in the organisation of the top African tournament as they have the support of their authorities.

What he and his team should do now is to put in place a well-planned programme in order to make Kone, Edi, Diane, Amagou and the rest of the men's national team deliver. These Elephants are in real need to shine. And they can do it, as they have already shown with only few weeks of preparations ahead of AfroBasket 2011.

Otherwise, a generation of talented, admired and respected players in their European and US clubs, run the risk of going to waste like so many African players elsewhere, victims of mismanagement.

The good thing is, Touré said, that the authorities “are determined to help succeed in organising this event [AfroBasket 2013].”

“We must also prove to FIBA Africa it is not mistaken in entrusting us with the organisation of the tournament,” Touré said to Ivoirebasket.com.
 
With the support of a significant portion of basketball fans in the country, the new president has plans for all. And to raise players' and fans' expectations, Touré said they have the means to develop the basketball and they will implement their programme.

Outgoing President, Moses Kore, is on his way out as well as Carlo Vieira, the general manager of the national team over the last four years.

Vieira said on a social network: “It is with great sadness that I am leaving.”

Touré, though, assured he is surrounded by people who can help to restart the Ivorian basketball. Had not the political instability hit the country a year ago, Ivory Coast would have organised AfroBasket 2011 with more or less means available at the time. They withdrew, handing the organization to Madagascar.

The new man at the helm of federation has a series of plans in mind before the top African teams arrive in Abidjan next year.

He wants “to make the basketball popular”, before he starts programming the AfroBasket 2013. And that includes programmes for the women's game as well.

“It is not our intention to neglect the basketball at local level,” Touré said. “We get to work to meet the aspirations of the clubs. Each club will have time to judge us in short to medium term.

“We will ensure that the relation with the Ministry and other bodies such as FIBA Africa are cordial."

Julio Chitunda

FIBA

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