With Victoria navigating its way through the Victorian Government’s Covid-19 restriction roadmap, and with the focus on a successful return of grassroots basketball for the community, Basketball Victoria (BV) has made a series of key updates to some of its representative team events.
Without a clear return to interstate travel, due to current border restrictions, as well as the inability to organise and host fair tryouts, Basketball Victoria has opted to cancel the 2021 Southern Cross Challenge, originally scheduled for January 2021.
BV said it looks forward to the 2022 Southern Cross Challenge and bringing back the tournament’s significant development opportunities for under-14 and under-15 players, as well as developing coaches and referees.
In lieu of a potential cancellation and with similar concerns surrounding interstate travel and event logistics, Basketball Victoria has also made the decision to withdraw its teams from the 2021 East Coast Challenge.
This development tournament for elite under-16 and under-18 players remains an important event to BV and it will work together with Basketball New South Wales to ensure the success of the event in 2022.
The 2020 Country Events Calendar, including the rescheduled Country Skills Days, has been cancelled. This is due to the Victorian State Government’s Covid-19 restrictions and the lack of viable options for rescheduling dates through the remainder of 2020.
Further information regarding the Country Basketball League and the 2021 Country Events Calendar will be available in upcoming weeks.
In addition, the uncertainty regarding interstate travel in the early stages of 2021, the inability to conduct lead-in programs, and the continuing focus on grassroots participation, Basketball Victoria has made the decision to withdraw its Victoria Country teams from the upcoming Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup (ACJBC).
BV has said it’s a decision that was made “regretfully”, as the ACJBC is a highlight on the calendar for junior players and country coaches alike. BV has committed to fully supporting the ACJBC organisation and aims to return to the event in 2022. Dates for the ACJBC in 2022 will be announced in time.
Basketball Victoria CEO NIck Honey said the decisions made were extremely difficult, but the uncertainy surrounding travel was too hard to navigate.
“Due to ongoing uncertainty regarding the return of basketball in Victoria and our continued focus to support associations to provide grassroots opportunities, we have unfortunately had to withdraw teams and cancel a number of representative events for late 2020 and early 2021 on the basketball calendar,” Honey said.
“Interstate travel is still uncertain at this stage, which makes the extensive planning needed to operate these elite development tournaments particularly difficult to achieve.
“With Victoria still under Covid-19 restrictions, we have to cancel these events and suspend our involvement in others in the interim.“
