This Is The Explanation From The IBL CEO About The Cancellation Of The 2020 Season

JAKARTA - The President Director of the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) Junas Miradiarsyah explained the decision to cancel the plan to hold a continuation of the 2020/21 season competition which was originally scheduled to take place October 13-27.

According to Junas, the decision was more of a delay, in other words it did not completely rule out the possibility of the 2020 IBL competition being continued if conditions allowed.

The conditions referred to are related to the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Indonesia, especially DKI Jakarta, the location of the IBL 2020 continuation plan which is currently implementing large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) following a spike in daily case infections.

"We have stopped the cancellation of this continuation plan. If the language is postponed, we will not dare to speculate on this condition or in the next one or two months, ”Junas said in a virtual press conference quoted by Antara, Wednesday.

However, Junas admitted that if the COVID-19 pandemic condition which is in a bad range continues for the next two months or December, then IBL 2020 will not be possible to continue.

The IBL operator previously decided to cancel this season's competition because the graph of cases of infection and death due to COVID-19 in Indonesia was still not sloping.

This decision follows PSSI and PT LIB's steps which have already postponed the implementation of the 2020 League 1 competition until an indefinite time limit. The police did not give permission to operate for fear of creating a new cluster of COVID-19 transmission.

If it is not possible to continue the 2020 season competition, Junas said that his party will start preparing to start the 2021 IBL season.

"If it has entered December, it should have entered the preparations for the 2021 season. If it is still 2020, we can continue, but when we enter 2021, we will start the 2021 season," he said.

Since being suspended in March, Indonesia Patriots have topped the IBL 2020/21 provisional standings, followed by NSH Jakarta and Pelita Jaya in second and third respectively.

Despite controlling the provisional standings, it is certain that Indonesia Patriots will not take part if the league resumes.

Meanwhile, for next season's competition, IBL will be enlivened by two new clubs, namely West Bandits Solo and Bali United.