Nairobi — Foreign teams will be invited for the second edition of the Eliud Owalo Foundation Elite Basketball Tournament in 2025, patron and sponsor, ICT Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has disclosed.
The first edition, which ended on Sunday night with Nairobi City Thunder and Zetech Sparks crowned champions, marked a successful pilot, that Owalo says showed much more can be done to elevate the level of basketball in the country.
"We have picked very many lessons and I can confidently say that we will have a bigger and better tournament next year, including the financial prizes. This is going to be an annual tournament. We are planning to invite foreign teams next year to make it even more competitive," Owalo said, speaking at the end of the three-day tourney.
Impressed with quality of basketball
Winners of the tournament, which included the top six teams in the men and women's leagues, received Sh300,000, with Sh200,000 going to the losing finalists and Sh100,000 for the third placed teams.
Owalo says he was impressed with the quality of basketball shown, and believes the tournament will go a long way in improving the level of the game in the country.
"We want to go back to the 80s and the 90s when we had many of these tournaments and we saw what it did to our national team. We want to augment the efforts by the Kenya Basketball Federation to help our teams improve," stated Owalo.
Owalo's foundation is also planning another tournament in Kisumu on Mashujaa Day, while next season, the tournament will be preceded by a coaching clinic.
Training for grassroots coaches
"We have noticed that most of our coaches especially in the grassroot level need more training and to be equipped with new knowledge. This will go a long way in bettering the talent that comes out. We are delighted with how this first edition went and hopefully we have a bigger and better tournament next year," said Ronnie Owino, the Organizing Committee's chair.
At the same time, KBF boss Paul Otula has thanked Owalo for organizing the tournament and called on more corporate partners to come on board.
"We have seen very high quality basketball being played here this weekend and this really is the tip of the iceberg for Kenyan basketball talent. We want to see more of this," Otula said.
