PNG to defend title

By ROBINSON LEKA
THE national men’s and women’s basketball teams will looking to defend their title when they compete in next year’s Melanesian Cup in Fiji.
Basketball Federation of Papua New Guinea (BFPNG) executive officer Nick Daroa welcomed the recent announcement that Fiji would host the tournament.
“It’s obviously very good news,” he told The National last week.
“We’re happy to be part of it because we will be defending our title.
“We will be going up against great sides like New Caledonia and hosts Fiji, who will be threats to our title defence.
“While we want to focus on defending our title, we have an annual general meeting (AGM) on Aug 28 and we will look into how we can best prepare our teams for the Cup.
“The recent news of Covid-19 infections in the country has been a serious issue but we are hopeful that we can get our teams prepared by May.
“We already have clearance from the PNG Sports Foundation and the national pandemic controller to run our competitions and programmes under strict measures.”
Daroa said selections for the teams would depend on how BFPNG would host the national basketball championships.
“We will decide during our annual general meeting when to host the championships, which will most likely to be at the end of the year,” he said.
“So I’m calling on all associations to get yourselves registered so we can pick the best teams.”