Clamour to review ban on contact sports gathers momentum

Basketball giants Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) head coach Sammy Kiki wants the government to fast-track the resumption of contact sports to enable them return to the court.

Last Friday, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed gave the go-ahead for non-contact sports such as athletics, badminton, tennis among others to resume while extending the ban of contact sports but Kiki thinks it’s time the situation got reviewed.

Contact-sports’ stakeholders and even legislators have asked the sports ministry to allow resumption of all kind of sports activities, saying it was ‘double standards to ban football games while politicians are holding big political rallies’

“As basketball fraternity we miss the courts and government should review their latest decision and allow all sporting activities to restart. We’ve international assignments lined up for our national team this year and we are yet to know if we are going to play, we therefore urge the government to allow the league to resume because the national squad will ultimately be drawn from clubs ,” Kiki said.

But even as he advises for the lifting of the ban, the tactician is calling for caution from stakeholders.

“We have to be very careful when we push for resumption of all sporting activities because the pandemic is still with us,” Kiki added.

The basketball league was primed for a March restart but the pandemic threw the plans into the backburner

KPA finished fourth last season with 38 points, their worst finish in the last four years and were knocked out by Ulinzi Warriors in the semifinals playoffs after defeating Strathmore’s Blades in the quarters