By Brown Msyani
The Citizen Correspondent
Dar es Salaam. The stand-off between Dar es Salaam Basketball (DB) and Don Bosco Youth Centre over the suspension of key Savio players took a new twist yesterday when the Centre opted out of the ongoing RBA League.
Don Bosco said in a letter submitted to DB yesterday that their teams would not honour their remaining league matches in protest of the RBA organisers’ decision to turn down the their appeal again the suspensions of their two players.
The reigning RBA League champions, Savio and DB Lioness, are the teams owned by the Dar es Salaam centre.
In a letter signed by Don Bosco director Frederick Swai, they said they were not happy with the way they handled the matter, and described the punishment as unfair.
This comes days after DB slapped a one month ban and Sh 300,000 fine on Savio’s Henry Mwinuka allegedly for assaulting Ashraf Haroun of Vijana when their sides met recently. The Dar es Salaam basketball governing body also imposed a six-month suspension on Mwinuka’s teammate Jije Makani allegedly for harassing Vijana’s Doto Zephania.
Don Bosco had also appealed against a ruling by organisers on the March 12 game between arch-rivals Savio and Vijana, which was halted with only 29 seconds to time.BD had ruled that the match be replayed the following day, but they later awarded Vijana a walkover after Savio failed to show up at the National Indoor Stadium.
However, Don Bosco fell short of elaborating on their decision to withdraw their women’s team, DB Lioness, which was not involved in the fracas. Following their withdrawal, both teams risk being relegated to a lower division next season.Savio hold three basketball titles. They are also the National Basketball League (NBL) champions as well as Union League title holders.