This year’s Accra Basketball League is set to tipoff on March 9 with games in the Women’s Division beginning hostilities between some of Ghana’s top hoops teams.
However, the campaign will commence with the deaths of league administrators Matthias Ocloo and Benjamin Baafi in recent weeks in the backdrop.
Ocloo passed away on February 16 and Baafi died in the late hours of March 1; both men battled short illness for several months.
The deceased pair played fundamental roles in the nation’s basketball fraternity as Ocloo is a founding father of the league and prior to his demise, Baafi was the league’s administrator.
The ABL 2017 season is ready to begin mere days after Ghana’s 60th Independence Day Celebrations after the registration period for teams and players closed on February 24th.
However, the number of teams that completed the registration process was fewer than teams that did same last year.
Six teams competed in 2016 but five have registered for this year’s campaign in the women’s division and seven teams have completed the registration process in the Men’s Division I for this campaign; ten teams competed last season.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@ YawMintYM on Twitter
