Commonwealth Games: Why Basketball Team Failed To Win Games in Gold Coast....Abdul Yahaya

....Late preparation, poor training programmes Cost us at the Commonwealth Games...Abdul Yahaya By Niyi Busari One of the home-based basketball players that represented Team Nigeria at the Gold Coast Commonwealth, Abdul Yahaya has revealed the reason behind the team's failure to win a single game at the tournament. The utility player blamed their woeful performance on their poor training programme. He told BSN Sports that the players could not trained together until two days to the before their first game. Yahaya explained that only six players left Nigeria while other six players that are based in America joined the team late which responsible for lack of cohesion and team work in the team. Speaking with www.bsnsports.com.ng Yahaya said: "We were unable to win any game because our training programme is not okay. Only six players trained together before we left Nigeria while other six joined us from America. " Basketball is made of twelve players, so the six of us that trained together and understand each could not do much to turn results to our favour because the other six foreign based players arrived Australia late and that affected our game plan. Therefore, there is no cohesion in the team." Abdul Yahaya however, suggested that the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBF should always embark on early preparation where all invited players will report to camp to train, blend and understand each other ahead of any major competition. "Let use this opportunity to urge the NBF to always declare camp open early enough to allow the invited players play together so as to blend and understand each other ahead of a major competition." He advised. Team Nigeria lost to New Zealand, Canada and Australia in their group matches.