Mesmerising Mercenaries!
THEY have made several appearances at the prestigious National Championships and apart from attaining second position three times, on two occasions they ended the competition as sorry victims of biased officiating in the finals.
As part of their illustrious participation in this revered basketball contest, they have bowed out in the semi-finals on three occasions.
They were finally fettered with the champions medals during the 2019 edition when Manicaland hosted the annual event at Mutare Boys’ High Recreation Centre.
Only last weekend in Bulawayo, with a fairly new team, made up of seven new youngsters, averaging 23 years of age, who had not rubbed shoulders with opponents at this stage of competition before, they came within 40 minutes of being named champions, only to once again settle for second position.
Their name is Mercenaries and their home is Mutare!
Coming into the 2022 edition of this competition, Mercenaries were the defending champions.
Mercenaries came second position in their group stage matches.
They went on to play against former national champions, JBC in the semi-finals and won 61-48, before losing 52-67 to eventual tournament winners, Foxes of Harare in the finals.
Such is the depth in their rank and file of this poorly funded team from Mutare that only five players – veteran, Innocent ‘Stolz’ Sithole, Peterson Chakubvura, Tanaka Dowera, Trevour Sanyatwe and Brian Mangwende – from the Mercenaries Class of 2019, were part of the squad last weekend.
As if that was enough, the 2022 National Championships Most Valuable Player (MVP) was Kudakwashe “Kuduru” Pote, who came through Mercenaries from Dangamvura Knights Academy before he moved for greener pastures to Harare where he is turning out for Foxes.
At the 2022 National Championships, there were top eight teams from different provincial leagues, with Harare fielding four men and four women’s teams, while Bulawayo had three men and four women’s teams.
Manicaland had one men’s team. The coach, Tonderai Sengai was more than impressed with his team’s performance.
“To be honest, I was more than impressed with our performance. We had a new team with only five players remaining from the squad that represented us during the previous edition of the tournament and one of them was injured.
“The youngsters who represented us really did a good job, blending with their senior counterparts who also had a fine outing.
The fact that we managed to beat Foxes in the group stages and went on to meet the same team in the finals, but unfortunately lost at the end speaks volumes about the talent we have,” said Sengai.
The declining standards of the game of basketball as well as the encouraging entrance of youngsters on the big stage did not escape Sengai’s attention.
“I can safely say after the Covid-19 lengthy break, the level of competition in the game has gone down. The team that we beat in the semi-finals most of their players have been in the national team for some time.
“Players showed signs of lethargy and the pace was not what it used to be. However, on the contrary, I was impressed with the coming in of youngsters who showed great potential. There is a new generation of young players averaging 23 years of age who represent the future of the game in the country,” said Sengai.
He noted that if national team selection is done on merit, Mercenaries which had most of its players only being called for trials before being dropped ahead of international assignments in the past, deserve to have at least three players selected.
“I honestly think that we (Mercenaries) deserve to have three or four youngsters from our side in the national team and that is if the selection process is done fairly and professionally,” he said.
In a separate interview after last weekend’s Bulawayo 2022 National Championships, Manicaland-based BUZ vice-president (technical), Tonderai Shasha said: “The Basketball Union of Zimbabwe National Championships (BUZNC) were played over four days in Bulawayo, and everything went on very well.
The quality of referring has greatly improved. Joyce Muchene our FIBA international female referee handled the men’s finals like a professional. We also had two referees based in South Africa coming to officiate during the games.”