Taipei, July 21 (CNA) The William Jones Cup International Basketball Invitational Tournament held in Taiwan will be postponed this year due to the lack of teams willing to participate in the event due to related disease prevention protocols, organizers announced Thursday.
The tournament, which has already seen a two-year hiatus after being canceled in 2020 and 2021, was due to return in the first half of August but will now be postponed as overseas teams are unwilling to observe point-to-point movement restrictions. point. and mandatory quarantine upon entry to Taiwan, the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA) said in a statement.
With too few teams to field an international tournament, the CTBA said it had decided to postpone this year’s event, which would have been the 42nd edition, and announce new dates later.
Currently, the new dates are planned for September, but their timing remains uncertain as it will also depend on the COVID-19 prevention rules and the willingness of the teams invited to participate, the CTBA said.
However, in case the tournament is not held this year, other events will be held in its place, such as inviting national teams from different leagues across the country to play friendly cross-league matches for Taiwanese basketball fans. , said the CTBA. .
Taiwan currently has two professional basketball leagues, P. LEAGUE+ and T1 LEAGUE, which field six teams each. while the semi-professional Super Basketball League, often known as SBL, has four teams.
In 2019, basketball team Mighty Sports from the Philippines won all eight games to be crowned champions in the men’s division, while team from Japanese club Mitsubish Electric won all five games to win the women’s title.
Held in Taiwan since 1977, the tournament is named after British basketball promoter Renato William Jones, first secretary general of basketball’s world governing body FIBA, a position he held for 44 years from of 1932.
Comments are closed.