AWBL

BRAVEHEARTS Women’s Club have made the BASMAL domestic championship their own for over five years, and their success has heightened the team’s ambition. The desire to compete now stretches beyond the home comforts of Malawi and into the continental realm. With the FIBA Zone 6 (Southern Africa) Women’s Basketball League Africa Qualifiers likely to take place this year, that dream could soon become a reality for the Bravehearts.

One of the club’s most experienced players, Tadiwa Mabika from Zimbabwe, shares the club’s ambition of stepping into the bigger arena of club basketball.

It also helps that the 24-year-old Mabika knows a thing or two about top-level basketball. In her mid-teens, she represented Zimbabwe at the 2017 U16 Women’s AfroBasket. Six years later (2023), she would suit up for her country’s senior national team in the Zone 6 FIBA AfroBasket Qualifiers.

Mabika, who spoke a day (Sunday 31 July) after her club won back the recently concluded Bravehearts International Basketball Challenge (BIBC), intimated her desire to return to playing in the upper reaches of African basketball.

“As an individual, it’s something I aspire to. I consider it the highest level of basketball. That is something I want to compete in for experience and exposure,” said the BIBC MVP. “I think it will be a learning experience. Hopefully, if we get another opportunity, we can do better. Then we will know what we are getting ourselves into. So as a team, I believe we all share that ambition. Even if it takes time to get there.”

From her own experience with Zimbabwe’s senior national team and playing club basketball in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mabika says her Bravehearts teammates should prepare themselves for an aggressive approach from their potential opposition.

“It is going to be hard. It is going to be tough. Having played with the national team and my experience in the DRC, there is a certain level of physicality that teams play with, so we must be prepared for that,” said 24-year-old Mabika. “The one disadvantage we have is the lack of height, so we must utilise what we have to our advantage. So, if you are short, you must be quick and be able to outrun the bigger players.”

Apart from capturing the national championship and winning the BIBC, the Bravehearts women’s team has triumphed in recent tournaments held in South Africa this year. Mabika says those wins at the Ashraaf Loedewyk and Wits Lady Bucks tournaments down South were a confidence booster. But she correctly pointed out that they will need better competition to compete against much stronger teams.

“Winning in South Africa is a confidence booster. But we should not be overconfident because we won tournaments over there. Qualifying for the WBLA requires playing against much better competition. The BIBC is a much stronger competition because it brought teams from outside Malawi, which was good for us,” said Mabika.

The power forward feels the Zone 6 qualifiers will bring together a mix of players that will allow her to expand on her playing repertoire.

“I have never played in the club qualifiers. I have only played with the national team, and it was good exposure. But I think playing in the club qualifiers will be different because clubs can sign players from overseas. It will be a completely different level and an important learning curve for my career. I look forward to that,” said Mabika.

Mabika’s ambition is undeniable, and with Bravehearts determined to compete on the continent, the experience of the Zimbabwean power forward will count.