KEN - After the Kigali debacle, can Kenya women bounce back ?

NAIROBI (Women National Team) - For Kenya, the shocking reality from Zone Five qualifiers in Rwanda is that the national women's team failed to qualify for the Africa Nations Cup to be held in Madagascar in September.

The team was shut out by Rwanda who beat in two games 61-52 and 69-65 to claim the sole tickets for the continental bonanza. Kenya also did lose 57-53 to Uganda for the first time ever but did win the last encounter 67-45.

By finishing third behind eventual winners Egypt and host Rwanda who beat them 101-39 and 81-67 respectively, the men by all standards did well. No one expected a better position than that anyway. The team beat Uganda 96-83 and went past Burundi 80-59 for their two wins.

But the questions the fraternity is asking upon the teams return home after the show at the Amahoro Petit Stadium is that has the regional torch been finally passed on to Rwanda ? Can Kenya bounce back to reclaim her top position again ?

Many factors may have contributed to the team's dismal showing among them lack of government support, lack of adequate training and inability to call top players abroad. The other is the selection of the players and the naming of the coaching staff.

Kenyan teams would have done better in the tournament if only they had prepared well for the tournament in Kigali because they have the players and are capable of achieving that goal..

These were the observations of coach Cliff Owuor, a Kenyan tactician who is handling Rwandan national champions APR. He was speaking after watching the championships that came to an end on Sunday.

In a telephone interview from Kigali, Owuor said that lack of seriousness let to the teams poor outing in the show played at Amahoro Petit Stadium. He said that this can be reversed in future for better results.

The show that ended in Kigali over the weekend, he said, was a high level competition that only teams that had adequate preparations would prevail in the end.

He appealed to the government to give basketball the same attention that football is getting then only good results would be in store for all to see.

"If basketball gets the right support, the teams will definately do better but if they are given enough support, then they will not prepare well and thus no good results would be achieved under those circumstances." he noted.

The teams left Nairobi on a Sunday afternoon February 21 buy road top Kigali with a squad of 24 players and four coaches arriving in the Central Africa nation after nearly 30 hours on the road.

While the pundits are satisfied with the final placings of the men men in a tournament that featured Egypt and the host Rwanda, who were playing in front of their vociferous fans, there was absolutely no reason to believe that the women would fail to achieve that goal.

What makes the reality harsh is that his was a team officials had said was the best. So if a great squad loses matches they are expected to win who is to be faulted ? Is it the players or the coaches ?

This team will go down in history not as a great team of all, but as one that shamed the nation. No any other team poor as they may have been, have lost to Uganda and Rwanda. This is a sad fact Kenyans would have live with for years to come.

It can be said that the team merely trained for a week. In the opening days not many were available. National league MVP Caroline Arato declined to join the team after a late call up. Captain Angela Luchivya was unavailable due to work .

But truth be told, Kenya still, had enough players capable of putting any team in the region to the sword without breaking a sweat. So what happened to "the best team ever assembled" ?

That Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) have entered teams for continental showing is aplaudable. But they have not made an effort to have the teams prepare well for these games.

They have not ensured that the teams trained properly for these championships and as a result they have been unable to post good results. So just sending them out there with the consequences not withstanding isn't the best thing to do at all.

Within the last few months, Kenya have taken teams for the U 18 championships in Uganda in 2008, to Tunisia and Egypt for the final tour of the same tournament but the results have not been good.

The lessons have been learnt and they are hard and bitter ones. True Kenya can do better and the question is not when, the soon the better. The ball is squarely on KBF's court.

Dann OWERE
FIBA Africa