The 43rd William Jones Cup in Taiwan will not push through due to the ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association announced.
In a statement, the federation said that it made the tough decision to suspend the annual invitational tilt altogether after considering the possible inconveniences that the visiting teams might face.
Taiwan News reported that the Central Epidemic Command Center instructed CTBA to provide negative test results for all the foreign players taking part before entering the country.
Moreover, the federation would have the task of arranging designated hotels for a mandatory five-day quarantine period. Players would also need to undergo testing and another 14-day quarantine before flying back to their countries.
CTBA admitted that it could not afford to shoulder the costs, thus the decision to cancel the tournament outright.
This year’s Jones Cup was originally scheduled to be held in the cities of Kaohsiung and Xinzhuang from July 4th to 19th. It was later postponed to August due to the pandemic, until being called off.
This is now the third time that the competition got suspended since it began in 1977. First in 1989 when a fire destroyed Chunghwa Sports Stadium, then in 2003 due to the SARS outbreak.
Sources have told Tiebreaker Times that either Ateneo or Mighty Sports would have competed in the annual Philippine basketball tradition.
Mighty Sports is the reigning Jones Cup champions after it swept the competition last year. The proud franchise had also given the Philippines its sixth title in the meet.
