By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
China CBA is trying to start as early as April 2, but mainly most US players will not return to China due to US government restrictions to travel to China.
Eurohoops obtained the following letter, which was sent from the league offices to the CBA clubs.
To all CBA clubs,
In January 2020, the new coronavirus broke out in many places across the country. According to the requirements of national epidemic prevention and control, we postponed the subsequent games of the 2019-2020 CBA season scheduled to be held on February 1.
At present, the situation of epidemic prevention and control in CBA cities is stable. To better respond to the national requirements on precise prevention and control, calm and orderly promotion of a return to work and production, shoulder the mission and task of sports confidence, warm people’s hearts and gather people’s hearts, according to the relevant requirements of China Basketball Association on the restart of the league, the rest of the games of the 2019-2020 CBA season will restart from the beginning of April.
All clubs and teams are requested to prepare for the restart of the CBA League as early as April 2. At the same time, all teams should comply with the relevant requirements of the national and local epidemic prevention and control departments, continue to strengthen the epidemic prevention and control work, do an excellent job in making detailed and reliable security measures such as epidemic prevention and control, and ensure the health and safety of club and team members. Details of the restart will be notified separately.
European players and coaches of the CBA like Lithuanian Donatas Motiejunas and Greek Manos Manouselis have already received the call to return and they are expected to travel back to the Asian country.
It remains a question in most cases, however, which players will ultimately respond to the call since there are still restrictions from traveling to China from countries all over the world due to the epidemic.
Those restrictions also apply to the US, which is the country of origin of the majority of foreign players in the league, and US citizens are currently banned from traveling to China.