Ugandans warm up to a new sport of Roller Basketball
Nov 13, 2020
The sport is played over three halves of 20 minutes each with 5-minute intervals in between each half.
Ugandan sportsmen have another opportunity to try out their skills in the new Roller basketball sport recently introduced in the country.
Roller basketball is a game played by two teams of 12 players each with 6 on the court and 6 reserves for every team at any given time. It can be played with any kind of roller skates (Quads, Inline skates, and Stopper skates).
While skating, the player has to dribble the ball with a single hand or both hands and at the same time make the basket on the ‘opponents' side'. At the end of the game, a team with the most baskets scored is declared as the winner on the basis of maximum baskets scored.
According to the Uganda Roller Basketball Association general secretary Ali Kyeswa, the sport currently has two teams for both men and women; the Kireka Stars and a Nsooba-Kyebando team.
Plans to roll out the sport to different parts of the country are in high gear, according to Kyeswa whose administration committee has Nuhu Mbogo as president and Simon Kyanda (technical).
"Our plan is to develop young talents by wooing those using skates on the road to the sport because many have lost their lives while trying out skating on the road.
"Hopefully we can have a team ready for the world cup next year in Chandigarh, India in June," Kyeswa said.
The sport is played over three halves of 20 minutes each with 5-minute intervals in between each half. For the last half, the referees will toss the coin and the team winning the toss will have the ball possession.
In some of the rules of the sport whose origin is from India, any player who skates without dribbling the ball shall be counted as having violated the rules. The ball shall change possession to the opponent team. The ball is started on the sideline close to where the violation happened.
"A player shall not stop dribbling the ball and make body touch with the ball. The ball is awarded to the opponent and resumes on the sideline close to where the violation happened," among the other rules.