DIRECTOR of the Zenith Bank Women Basketball League, Muktar Khaleh, says he is delighted by the fresh talents that have emerged in the first and second phases of the league, assuring that fans are in for a swell time in the last phase, which begins tomorrow at the Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Lagos.Khaleh, who is also the vice president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), told The Guardian that the players, especially some new ones, showed improvement in their games in the last phase.Although he lamented the absence of some teams in the first two phases, he, however, said that did not take the shine off the league.'Despite the fact that all the teams were not present in the earlier rounds, I can tell you that some new talents have come up and this is a good development for the women's game in the country,' he added.He assured that the last phase would be the most exciting because all the teams would be on hand to fight for laurels, adding that the competition would be competitive and exciting as the teams would want to outdo one another in their quest for laurels.Khaleh also noted that the issue of security might have prevented some of the teams from attending the first two phases, saying that the NBBF would look at issues surrounding the league before choosing venues in future.'We may not sanction any team that failed to show up in the previous round because the issue they raised were cogent and we will sit together to see how we can avoid a reoccurrence and move the league forward. What we want to do is to develop the league and we cannot achieve that if teams failed to turn up for games,' he added.Khaleh also revealed that more teams might be brought into the Zenith Bank league to make it more competitive and also see the league could have more phases.He commended Zenith Bank for its unflinching support and assured that NBBF would do everything possible to ensure that the sponsors would get value for the sponsorship.'We are not perfect and we might have done some things wrong in the course of organising the league, however, we plead for forgiveness so that we can move the women game forward together,' he said.
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