The Senegalese Women's Basketball team for women has scraped plans for training in the USA for the upcoming Afrobasket tournament on the Ivory Coast after several players and team officials refused their visas, said Senegal Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said on Thursday in a statement in French on Facebook that the team in Senegal's capital Dakar would train in a sovereign and beneficial environment.
The Federation of the West African nation said in a statement that the visa applications were not approved by five players and seven officials.
“I have instructed the Ministry of Sport to issue several members of the Senegal Women's National Basketball teams to simply cancel the 10-day preparatory training in the United States,” said Sonko in his explanation.
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The Visa flows come in the middle of a advance of the Trump government to have countries that improve the verifier travelers or are exposed to a ban on their citizens to visit the United States. Senegal was not on this list of countries, and it was not immediately clear why the visas were rejected.
The travel ban includes exceptions for the World Cup, the Olympic Games and all “other big sporting events”, although it is unclear what is considered a big event.
The team is trained by Otis Hughley Jr., who previously led the Nigerian women's basketball team. He was the men's coach in Alabama A&M before he resigned in March.
Senegal, which was to train in the USA from June 22nd to July 3, has taken first or second place in the last five Afrobasket championships in the past ten years and won a total of 11 titles. The tournament will determine Africa's Champion, who deserves access to the Fiba World Championship next year in the Fiba World Cup in Germany.
