The Botswana Basketball Association (BBA) recently held an Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) in Francistown to align its constitution with that of the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC). BBA spokesperson Thuli Jankey said that they reviewed different things in order to compare them with the standards the BNSC has set for its affiliates.

He said they reviewed their finance, disciplinary, membership, ethics, governance, conduct, technical, marketing and promotions to conform to the requirements of the BNSC.

"This was essential because we want to take basketball to greater heights, so some of our resolutions needed some review," he said. He said they reinforced some laws in the code of conduct and increased fines.

He added that BBA is deeply concerned about clubs' failure to honour fixtures in the league. So far Splinters and Flames, both from Francistown have missed a game each during the second round. Jankey admitted that this is a problem that can affect sponsorship.

He said they will take appropriate action against clubs that fail to honour fixtures. "Teams missing games have been a problem for us in basketball, but we are taking action against defaulters, we have already expelled Splinters from the league," he said.

He explained that they have developed membership standards for affiliates. He said in the past, it was easy for anyone to become a member and later fail to abide by the standards, rendering their development efforts ineffective. Jankey stated that community clubs are the biggest culprits in failing to abide by the association's standards as they sometimes lack financial muscle.This is why the clubs often miss games due to problems like lack of transport. Jankey said they tried to alleviate the problem by drawing fixtures that will make the community clubs to travel less for league games.

He said they organised the league in a mini-tournament format, so that clubs can play many games in a weekend to reduce transport costs. He said lack of indoor facilities is hindering the efforts of BBA to make money through gate takings because most match venues are open grounds. Jankey said they will try hard to make sure that the league ends on November 21 as scheduled. He added that they are working round the clock to secure a sponsor before the start of the next season. The league has been running for a long time without a sponsor.