After several weeks of uncertainty, D’Tigress arrived in Belgrade, the Serbian capital on Tuesday and will participate at the forthcoming 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament billed for February 10 to 13.
D’Tigress are in Pot B alongside France, China and Mali, with the top three teams in the group booking their place at the World Cup in Australia.
There had been doubts over the players’ availability for the competition following a clash with the Musa Ahmadu-kida-led board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation over unpaid bonuses, with the players last year threatening to boycott the qualifiers if they were not paid.
Again, a parallel election last month, which ushered in two NBBF boards, complicated the situation, as there was confusion over which group would be in charge of the team.
However, the overseas-based players hurriedly left for Serbia from their respective bases on Tuesday for the competition, without camping and training together before the event.
Newsmen learnt that two officials, the NBBF secretary-general, Olabisi Afolabi-Oluwayemi and the team doctor, as well as Customs women’s basketball club forward Nkem Akaraiwe departed Nigeria for Serbia on Monday and arrived on Tuesday to join the other members of the team.
In a video posted on the Instagram handle of D’Tigress point guard Promise Amukamara, players of the African champions completed their accreditation process, before the squad’s photoshoot on Tuesday.
The team begin their qualifying campaign against China on Thursday, before facing France on Friday. Their final group game is against Mali on February 13.
Our correspondent’s findings showed that that factional NBBF president, Mark Igoche, worked with the sports ministry to ensure the players attended the qualifiers, while the Ahmadu Kida group looked sidelined.
The Ahmadu-Kida led board of the NBBF and the sports ministry had been at loggerheads since October 2021 after the ministry called for the indefinite postponement of elections into the board due to internal wrangling in the body.
Parallel elections were then held in Abuja and Benin City, the Edo State capital, January 31, which ushered in Ahmadu-Kida and Igoche as NBBF bosses.
Speaking to newsmen, vice president of the Ahmadu-Kida faction, Babs Ogunade, said they were not involved in the players trips to Serbia.
“The ministry is in charge of the situation now. During our last outing, it was the ministry that also took our boys (D’Tigers) to Angola,” Ogunade told said.
“The ministry has been in charge of the national teams for some few months now, so we’re hoping that the ministry will take them since they’re interfacing with the ministry. It doesn’t matter who takes them, so long they are there.
“The ministry and secretary have contacted all the players as we have been made to understand, they have contacted the technical crew, so, we are hoping that they can attend.”
When newsmen reached out to a top official of the sports ministry on who was handling the team to the competition, the official said, “I am not aware.”
