Baafi: Forget About Basketball Growth in Ghana Without a Gym

12:08 PM Unknown 4 Comments

A few days after rains disrupted games of the GABL, the league's chairman is featured in a Daily Graphic article in which he expressed strong sentiments about what he believes is needed for basketball to develop in Ghana. The story by Kwame Larweh read:

''The chairman of the Greater Accra Basketball Association, Benjamin Baafi, has observed that unless a basketball gymnasium was built in the country, stakeholders, including the state and fans, must forget about the growth and development of the game in the country.


According to him, for an indoor sport like basketball with its attendant mass popularity it currently enjoys in the country, the non-existence of any and state-constructed indoor or outdoor infrastructure clearly inhibits its future prospects.

''Almost all West African nations that surround us have indoor basketball courts that prevent players and fans from adverse weather but Ghana is yet to boast even a single outdoor basketball court'' Baafi told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

He implored the sector minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, to, as a matter of urgency, ensure the construction of a state-of-the-art basketball facility in the Greater Accra Region to augment the various successes chalked up by the sport at its rudimentary stages in the country.

''Our biggest problem is the facilities on which we play, as I speak to you we have none,'' Mr. Baafi stressed this to the paper. He continued that ''all over the West African sub-region, ,there basketball arenas and gymnasiums''

Meanwhile basketball club Braves of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Customs Division, would participate in this year's Africa Club Championship slated for Burkina Faso in September.
The club, which won the Greater Accra Basketball League for the 14th year in succession, will begin camping in August in preparation for the tournament.

Basketball has been labelled as one of the so-called lesser-known sports despite the tremendous patronage it enjoys in the country. Despite the lack of infrastructure and equipment to facilitate the play of the game, the greater Accra League is still being organized and over 20 clubs represent in the first and second divisions, as well as the women's division.''

Theophilus Mensah is a Ghanaian basketball documentarian who has followed the game in Ghana for close to a decade. He travels across the counrty documenting all aspects of basketball culture in Ghana. His work was recently featured in Roads and Kingdoms.

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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 16, 2013 at 12:42 PM

    Very true.we need an indoor court like yesterday!

    ReplyDelete
  2. joeinaccraghanaMay 16, 2013 at 2:39 PM

    It is not all that Ghana basketball needs, but it would help tremendously.
    There would still need someone to manage and organize basketball.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMay 17, 2013 at 9:19 PM

    THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HEARD SOMETHING POSITIVE FROM A LEADER. I PLAYED BASKETBALL IN GHANA FOR SO LONG TO EASILY AGREE WITH MR. BAAFI.TALENT WE DO HAVE,THE REST IS UP TO OUR LEADERS TO HELP GET THIS GAME ON THE NEXT LEVEL.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PeeJoeJune 20, 2013 at 12:54 PM

    now where should this indoor be? Accra?

    ReplyDelete

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