Cross River Sports Commission receives boost

Cross River State Sports Commission has received a donation of fifty six basketballs and one hundred pairs of canvas shoes from a sports philanthropist. Displaying the items to newsmen in Calabar, the Chairman of the Sports Commission, Right Hon Orok Otu Duke said the basketballs and the canvas shoes will be distributed to over 400 students who are involved in the game of basketball in Calabar.

“Right now we have 56 basketballs and a donation of 100 pair of canvas shoes for the children free of charge and the tournament will commence immediately we are through with football. “We are having a lot of boys and girls from various schools that turned up for practice. Yesterday, we were there to witness training and the coaching and the introduction done by the officials of sports commission and we discovered that they needed these items and we got donations from somebody,” he said.

“In line with that we have thrown open the basketball court for various schools to come and get acquainted with the technicalities and facilities that we have here at the stadium,” Duke stated, adding that after the football tournament, they intend to move into the next programme which is the Basketball tournament for primary and secondary schools in Calabar metropolis. Consequently, the Chairman said that in line with the efforts to give sports at the grassroots levels a boost they are now moving to football which is the most popular sports.

“We are introducing Governor Ben Ayade Tournament for U-15 which covers all the secondary schools in the state and as of today we have 250 secondary schools that have indicated interest to participate in the championship. “The competition will run concurrently in all the Local Government Areas which are spread across the three senatorial districts of Cross River,” he concluded.