Coronavirus: ASEAN Basketball League calls off season

The ASEAN Basketball League announced the cancellation of its 2019-2020 season due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Asia.

The league’s Chief Operating Officer, Jericho Ilagan, said in a statement Thursday: “It is with a heavy heart that we announce that we’ll have to step away from the basketball court for now.”

Ilagan added the ABL did its best to take precautionary measures, postponing more than 50 games overall since the beginning of 2020.

The league played only one game since February 23. However, due to growing concerns regarding the virus, which is now considered a global pandemic, the ABL has decided to call the season off.

Mono Vampire of Thailand was the league leader with a 12-4 record, followed by San Miguel Alab Pilipinas’ 10-6 card.

The Kuala Lumpur Dragons (10-7), Formosa Dreamers (8-7), Fubon Braves (9-8), and Macau Black Bears (7-7) were the four other teams with a record .500 or better.

Rounding out the team standings are the Singapore Slingers (7-10), Macau Wolf Warriors (5-8), Hong Kong Eastern (3-7), and Saigon Heat (3-11).

Since the previous months, many countries have imposed travel bans on mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Of countries participating in the ABL, Singapore and Malaysia have the most number of coronavirus cases with 178 and 149, respectively.

Thailand has 70 cases while the Philippines has 52; Taiwan has 49, and Vietnam has 45.

Macau has done a great job controlling the spread of the virus in its state, shutting down casinos and helping infected individuals recover right away.

There have been no new cases in Macau as of posting time.