MANILA--FIBA announced on Friday that its Asian championships will be moved to next year due to the spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.
In a letter sent by FIBA to different national sports associations for basketball, including the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, the FIBA Asia Cup will now be played sometime in July 2022, "right after the window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asia Qualifiers."
Jakarta will remain the host city for the event, which is traditionally done every four years.
The COVID-19 situation has worsened in Indonesia over the midyear mainly due to the prevalence of the highly transmissible Delta variant which originated in India, even peaking to as high as 56,757 new cases in one day, which was tallied on July 15.
However, the daily cases are starting to dwindle as only 33,772 had been tallied in the latest update on Wednesday.
Still, FIBA deemed that pushing through with the FIBA Asia Cup as scheduled from Aug. 17-29 in Jakarta is very risky.
At least one country, Jordan, has expressed its desire to take over the hosting chores from Indonesia, but the postponement has been ultimately ruled.
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