The Sunday News
Lovemore Dube
THERE is nothing as boring as what you perceive to be the ultimate being reduced to nothing.
More often we hear of people boasting: “When football was still football or when athletics was still athletics we watched great stuff.”
This is a common thing among those who watched certain sports before our times. One is left with a vivid picture painting of better times on the field of play with exceptional individual talents and team effort.
Today Sunday News Leisure speaks to Sinda Mono, one of the most decorated individuals as a coach in basketball. He was a conqueror at the sport’s golden era — the decade between 1985 and 1995 when Matabeleland or specifically Bulawayo basketball dominated the scene with a galaxy of stars who included Basil West, Bradley de Jongh, Ernie Noble, Derbyton Williams, Brian Staal, Leslie Richardson, Zorrn Milesovik, Witness Martin, Archieford Murombedzi, Vusa Ndlovu, Chrispen Ngqa Ndebele, Justin Mpofu, Filaviasi Zharare, Unita Dube, Angela Chikomba, Vimbai Muhomba, Rose Phiri, Rose Marshall, Fungai Sibanda and Maggie Soutter.
Basketball was among the city’s most successful sporting disciplines winning prestigious tournaments such as the Major Leyland Trophy for high schools where Founders and Northlea High Schools proved to be good ambassadors of the city. At club level Peking Stars and Highlanders’ men and women’s teams came to the party to land the elite clubs’ Kodak National Championships.
The home of Matabeleland basketball in those times was the Bulawayo Club of the Disabled (BCD) Courts in North End. Basketball had carved its own niche that among its followers was the great Highlanders team of the 1980s which had Peter Nkomo, Fanuel Ncube, Mercedes Sibanda, Madinda Ndlovu, Tito Paketh, Willard Khumalo, Tobias Mudyambanje, Amin Soma-Phiri, Sydney Zimunya, David Phiri, Titus Majola would be among the spectators. Crowds of up to a thousand people would cram into the small venue and cheer stars of the day as top notch basketball was on display.
The landmark to high standards of the sport can be attributed to people like Mono and the late Jackson Nkau who went to schools and introduced the sport. Blacks who previously focused on football and other sports like athletics found their way into basketball and made it a numbers game.
Mono concurs with the saying that the basketball being delivered nowadays is not the same with that of old. He says today’s players lack grasping fundamentals at an early stage of their introduction to the sport.
“Back in the day schools asked for experts to come and coach. These were either club players or coaches who invested their time to developing talent working hand in glove with teachers and schools. There is a gap between provincial sports bodies and schools, it’s not a basketball problem but a number of sports,” said Mono.
He with the late Jackson Nkau are credited with developing hundreds of stars at schools such as Founders, Montrose, Northlea, Luveve and Ihlathi during that era, many of whom went on to be national team stars.
He said the strength then was the identification of talent that looked at physical attributes and then laying a firm foundation of basic fundamentals about ball skills pertinent to basketball.
Mono said in the past sponsorship of the sport was good with most players of his generation having been able to find jobs through the sport.
The much travelled basketball official was born in Bulawayo on 10 October 1963 and attended his primary school education at Mzilikazi Primary School where he developed love for the sport because of his elder brother.
“I developed a liking for basketball while at Mzilikazi. My brother played the sport at Tshaka with guys like Nkau. When I moved to Livingstone’s Linda Secondary School, I was motivated by a Russian sports expert.
“That is where I started playing the sport before I moved back to Bulawayo where after 1980 I continued with my schooling at Luveve Secondary School. Killian Nyandare, among the first Blacks in the sport at Nuggets a club formed by players drawn from Olympics, Sparrows and Black Panthers, inspired me a great deal. My brother played with Marko Zulu and Nkau at Tshaka Youth Centre,” he said.
After secondary school Mono found himself forming Sparks Basketball Club at Tshaka with the likes of Nkozo Ndebele a reputable medical practitioner, Ndaba Mhlanga, George Matiwaza, Edwin Ntaka and Sipho Phugeni. They played in the Second League in 1983 and topped the division leading to promotion in 1984.
“After one year we proved too good and were promoted to the First Division where we found the going not so easy. We were able however, to win the Handicap Tournament final beating Peking Stars by a close two to four points.
We had started at 32 points bust so good were stars that they rallied from behind to almost snatching a win,” he admitted.
Stars were bubbling with Noble, Williams, Mpofu, Staal and Buys then.
He described the standards then as very high with big turnouts at tournaments because of good sponsorship the sport enjoyed. However, the downside of things in the sport was lack of international opportunities for exposure.
After two years with Sparks he moved to Mutare where he got a job.
He was to start officiating there before getting a chance to coach the provincial men’s side. In 1987 he returned to Bulawayo and joined Highlanders starting off as the men’s team coach.
He remembers working with the likes of Dingi Mguni now in Canada, Fanuel Phiri, Zharare, Murombedzi and Daniel Mombeshora guiding the team to the Kodak finals.
Like a rolling stone that gathers no moss, Mono was to stay just two years there before landing a job at top club Peking Stars. He coached the women’s team and was assistant coach to Ernie in the men’s side as the legendary point guard was also doubling as a top notch player.
“A job offer outside basketball by Sydney Chicksen saw me leave Highlanders to coach a great side with girls like Rose Marshall, Rose Sibanda and Justina Tembo and we were able to win medals together at club level and even in the inter-provincials,” said the Basketball
Union of Zimbabwe Commissioner.
Mono believes his Peking Stars’ men’s side with the likes of Noble, Staal, Buys, Williams, Leslie, Richardson, Keith Milner, Mpofu, Toney Bollo Benson, Herbert Benson and Vincent Chimombe as the best ever team.
Mono says the vibe of old where BCD Courts would be filled to the rafters, fans and players gripped with tension to an extent that a falling needle would at times be heard at one moment, or a sudden eruption of vociferous fans to celebrate a Skonkan or Noble three-pointer is gone.
Mono believes they have a lot to do before the sport returns to its former glory.
