The ManicaPost
Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
WHILE spending one season without tasting defeat is a monumental feat in different sporting genres, just like the English Premiership’s Arsenal Invincible Class of 2004, basketball outfit, Mercenaries, have cemented their dominance in the Manicaland Basketball League competitions after going for a good 12 years without knowing how it feels to lose a match.
MBL witnessed the resumption of their matches last weekend, with Sakubva Hurricane losing to Chiefs, while ChikFlo, a blend of players from Chikanga and Florida, were on the receiving end in a match against Mercenaries.
Sophists beat Tsvingwe, while Africa University and Rusape Kings did not partake in the season opening round of league matches.
More MBL action is expected this weekend and for the record, Mercenaries are yet to lose a match in the MBL for the past 12 years.
However, it is the Mercenaries’ dominance in the MBL that guarantees them to earn them a automatic ticket to partake in the national competitions as the province’s representatives at the end of every season.
Mercenaries have made several appearances at the prestigious national championships, and apart from attaining second position three times, on two occasions they ended the competition as sorry victims of biased officiating in the finals.
As part of their illustrious participation in this revered national basketball contest, they have bowed out in the semi-finals stage of the tournament on three occasions.
They were finally fettered with the national champions medals in 2019 when Manicaland hosted the annual event at Mutare Boys’ High Recreation Centre.
Only late last year, with a fairly new team, made up of seven new youngsters averaging 23 years of age who had not rubbed shoulders with opponents at this stage of competition before, they came within 40 minutes of being named champions, only to once again settle for second position.
Coming into the 2021 edition of this competition, Mercenaries were the defending champions.
Such is the depth in their rank and file of this poorly funded team from Mutare that only five players – veteran, Innocent ‘Stolz’ Sithole, Peterson Chakubvura, Tanaka Dowera, Trevor Sanyatwe and Brian Mangwende – from the Mercenaries Class of 2019, were part of the squad last weekend.
As if that was enough, the 2022 National Championships’ Most Valuable Player (MVP) was Kudakwashe “Kuduru” Pote, who came through Mercenaries from Dangamvura Knights Academy before moving to Harare for greener pastures where he is turning out for Foxes.
But it is their dominance in the Mutare Basketball League which remains outstanding by any measure.
One of their most senior players, Sithole, who has been with the club since 2006, said: “I think our dominance came from our ambition to win the national championship.
“We have always wanted to win the national championship and we had to start by assembling a team that can dominate in the province before going to the nationals.”
