Chinese basketball to make Covid-19 return on June 20 after months of false dawns
- League action approved for Dongguan and Qingdao as officials vow strict adherence to epidemic prevention measures
- CBA amends ‘Bayi rule’ as many teams see foreign stars stranded outside China because of travel ban
An announcement on their Weibo account said that the CBA’s new proposal had been approved by the Sports and Health departments, with preparations for the restart well under way. The CBA is the first of China’s major sports to announce a restart.
The 16 rounds remaining of regular season will be played in just two cities, Dongguan in Guangdong province in the south and Qingdao in Shandong province in the north. They said that all teams, players and staff would abide by national and local epidemic prevention laws.
Many had pointed to a CBA restart as a possible plan for the NBA to follow when it comes out of its coronavirus suspension. Initial plans to restart the CBA as early as mid-April were rejected by the General Administration for Sport and Centre for Disease Control.
The Yao Ming-headed CBA broke up for its Lunar New Year break in January and has not played since as all sport in China drew to a halt because of the spread of the coronavirus.
