In the year of Ghana's participation in the 22nd African Womens Basketball Championship Afrobasket 2011 the Ghana Basketball Association (GBBA) has set itself to getting back on track to raising the image of Ghana Basketball and this begins with the National Teams. Over the past decades since the Ghana Basketball Association was established it has always been women basketball that has put Ghana on the African basketball stage. One key to life's success which plays a major role in sporting success is to improve on your strengths and work on your weakness. Surprisenly one major strength of Ghana Basketball when it comes to competitions on the big stage is the Women's National Team " Black Hoop Queens". The Ghanaian Womens National Team has been the pride of Ghana Basketball for many years and the GBBA is fixed on improving this reputation by scouting out and identifying and attracting Ghanaian Female Players abroad to beef up the various Women's National Teams.   

Iron shapeneth Iron and thus Ghana needs its experienced and polished talents to sharpen the raw local talents. In the GBBA search for Ghanaian International Basketball Talents to join the team for Afrobasket Mali 2011, we have come across very experienced and successful female Ghanaian basketball players in the USA and Canada. With the inclusion of these players to the Local based team Ghana will no doubt increase its chances to leaving a mark on the upcoming tournaments in Africa. One tournament at hand is the 2011 Afrobasket Womens Championship which will showcase some of Africa's best female talents across the world on one big stage. Ghana also does want to showcase its best talents and most of which are based abroad. A couple of them have been confirmed to join the team in Ghana for the Mali tournament, also a couple of them will not be able to make it because of their school commitments and are looking forward to subsiquent tournaments. Players confirmed to join the team include Naa Sheka Guard(Vancouver Canada), Pavla Pletkova Combo Guard (Washington,USA), Obaahemaa Nyanin Forward(USA). These three experienced and sharp talents will be a great asset to the Women's Team, more than just an asset they will surely inspire and motivate their fellow team mates who are based locally who have little exposure in the game. Look out for upclose articles on these three players.The GBBA will continue its scouting across the globe for foreign based players even after the Afrobasket 2011.One challenge for the GBBA to overcome will be raising the needed finances to bring its foreign players to Ghana but with long term planning and approach it will soon be a challenge of the past.     

Picture: from left to right " left: Pavla Pletkova playing professional in Germany, Right: Naa Sheka playing in college.