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Caroline Magenga Sports Reporter
FORMER Zimbabwe national basketball team player and administrator, Bright Chidimu, has died.
Chidimu succumbed to cerebral malaria over the weekend in Tanzania, where he had just started working in the last two weeks.
Basketball Union of Zimbabwe president, Addison Chiware, said the death was a blow not only to the Chidimu family but to the entire basketball fraternity.
“We were shocked when we received the news because it was unexpected.

“Chidimu was a brilliant basketball player who had passion for the sport and dedicated years of his life to the court. He is a former provincial administrator and secretary-general. He also doubled as a coach for a while and he served every post he was given diligently and passionately.
“Our deepest condolences and prayers go to his family at this difficult moment,” said Chiware.

Chidimu spent the first 12 years of his life in the United Kingdom before returning home to enrol at Marlborough High School.
It was during this period that he developed a passion for basketball and later played for the formidable Cavaliers side that dominated local basketball in the 1990s.

Playing alongside the likes of the then captain Garikai Kapuya, Fred Manyawu, Hugh Hofisi and the late Ronald Garura, Cavaliers were kings of local basketball for the better part of that decade. Chidimu’s younger brother, Blessing, said basketball was his brother’s “passion”.

“Basketball was my brother’s soul and passion, I remember even after he retired ,he would coach upcoming players, always encouraging and mentoring them.
“He had recently started working for a private company in Tanzania, barely two weeks ago.

“As a family we feel deeply pained because we shared a special bond and we don’t know how the void he has left can ever be filled,” he said.
Bright is survived by wife Sandra and two children Tatenda (8) and Minana (3).