NAIROBI, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Continental basketball governing body FIBA Africa moved the Oceanic region's preliminary round of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) from Mombasa of Kenya to Antananarivo in Madagascar, a Kenyan official said on Thursday.
Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Secretary General Vitalis Gode said Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) has to travel down to Madagascar to fight for its place in the inaugural league in the continent.
The move was made due to the poor standard of hosting venues as Kenya lags behind in standardization of its indoor gym facilities.
"It is sad that FIBA Africa move the tournament without giving concrete reason to another city. We had put in a good bid and had been cleared," Gode said.
The preliminary round of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) which is open to five maritime countries, after Djibouti pulled out, runs from Oct.29 to Nov. 3.
Kenya's KPA will have to battle it out with teams from Madagascar (GNBC), Seychelles, Comoros and Mauritius (Beau-Vallon Heat).
A total of 48 countries and regions will be involved in the road to Basketball Africa League with eight regional groups marked to host the preliminary round.
Two finalists at the end of the qualifiers will be assured of a ticket to the main Basketball Africa League which will be hosted in six different Africa cities in March 2020.
