By Albert Akota
The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has assured its clubs readiness to get medical insurance for players.
The president of the federation Tijani Umar, gave the assurance at a news conference in Abuja to kickstart the 2014 Zenith Bank National Women Basketball League.
The NBBF organises both the Zenith Bank National Women Basketball League and the DSTV Men’s Basketball League.
“The federation has agreed that it needs to give insurance cover to our players, that we need to safeguard their careers, and we need to defend their health and get them fit every time.
“From next year and for the Zenith Bank and DSTV Leagues, the federation is going to work with the clubs to find an insurer.
“We need to make sure that even if it is medical insurance that we can get, it will take the weight of the financial cost off the clubs.
“If we do that, it shows that we are working as a responsible organisation,’’ Umar said.
He said the federation would partner with hospitals to ensure that proper medical attention was given to players who sustained injuries on the field of play.
The first phase of the 10th edition of the Zenith Bank National Women Basketball League began on Friday hope to end on Sunday next week.
Umar said 16 clubs were being expected to participate in the league, and that registration was still open for clubs to include one or two foreign-based players in their teams.
He said the second phase of the league would take place in Ilorin, Kwara for two weeks sometime around June, adding that a total of N90 million as sponsorship fund from Zenith Bank.
He said the cash prize for the overall winners was N1 million, N750,000 for the first runners-up and N500,000 for the second runners-up.
Meanwhile, the 16 clubs in the competition were drawn in two groups at the Technical Meeting held Friday at the NIS conference hall at the Abuja National Stadium.
Defending champions First Deepwater from Lagos, Coal City Queens of Enugu, Nigeria Customs of Lagos, FCT Angels of Abuja and AHIP Queens from Kano are among those in Group A.
The rest Group A clubs are Benue, Dolphins from Lagos and former champions First Bank of Lagos.
Group B has Sunshine Angels of Akure, Nigeria Immigration, Delta Force, GT 2000 from Kaduna and Taraba Hurricane from Jalingo.
The others in the group are Oluyole Warriors from Ibadan, Plateau Rocks from Jos and IGP Queens.
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