Hornets, BUZ in wrangle

HARARE City Hornets and Basketball Union of Zimbabwe are locked in a wrangle with the former claiming they were not allowed to use their foreign players in the quarter-finals of the National Basketball Championships in the capital two weeks ago.

Hornets have on their books the duo of David Canivete and Titus Njovu who are from Mozambique and Zambia.

BUZ admit Canivete was cleared but Njovu was ineligible.

However, both players could not take part in a match Hornets were walked over as three more players were suspended.

Hornets have since approached the High Court and club chairperson, Sani Mbofana, said they feel there was a ploy to derail his team from winning the National Basketball Championships.

“Hornets players listed by BUZ as ineligible are all registered with the Harare Basketball Association (HBA) with full clearances on international players.

“The bone of contention between Hornets and BUZ is the hearing and more specifically on their short notice by BUZ for the players to attend the so-called hearing.

‘‘It was so short that it was sent on April 11 in the evening through HBA for a hearing the following morning.

“The procedure lacked the fundamental principles of a fair hearing which should have looked at the rights of the players in terms of time, access to the charge sheet, available evidence coming out of any investigation carried by the mother board.

‘’These, in our opinion, should have been copies of scoresheets bearing the names of these players obtained from different leagues concerned.’’

BUZ president has said they have already moved on.

“David was cleared to play, he has an international clearance from the Mozambique Federation to play in Zimbabwe.

‘‘But, unfortunately, Titus does not have a clearance to play in Zimbabwe from his country, Zambia, so he was red flagged for the championships,’’ he said.