By WAYLON GALVEZ
After initially rescheduling the William Jones Cup for next month, the annual event has been cancelled altogether this year due to the continued surge of coronavirus cases.
The announcement came Thursday (July 2) after the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association arrived at a decision to call it off. The event was originally set this month but was pushed to August.
Mighty Sports, which represented the Philippines, captured the championship last year – thanks to reinforcements Renaldo Balkman, McKenzie Moore and Eugene Phelps.
Taiwan has been able to stage its baseball tournament two months ago due to a low rate of COVID-19 infection.
But the CTBA took into consideration the inconvenience the foreign players will have to go through upon their arrival in Taiwan so it decided to cancel the event.
This marks the third cancellation of the Jones Cup since it began in 1977.
In 1989, the organizer was forced to cancel the event after its venue – the Chunghwa Sports Stadium – was destroyed by fire, and in 2003 because of the SARS outbreak.
