BEIJING, June 5-- Almost five months without basketball, it's time for China's league to return to fans' life. The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) announced on Thursday that the league would resume on June 20. CBA has become the first professional league in China to resume its operations. It was suspended before the Spring Festival in January with 30 rounds of action played but had to face an indefinite suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The anxiety is over now, basketball fans have reasons to feel relieved that games will be back in two-week's time. But for the CBA president and Chinese basketball icon Yao Ming, it's never easy to say "relieved" about the restart. "It's just the beginning. We have met much uncertainty this year, which is beyond the boundary of our knowledge. We have to take everything into consideration," he admitted. To best prevent the spread of the COVID-19, matches will be played behind closed doors in a championship format after the resumption. Qingdao, in east China's Shandong province, and Dongguan, in the southern province of Guangdong, have been selected as the hosts for the remainder of the league. The CBA has witnessed a boom in television views and ticket box receipts in its 25th year, also the first season since the inauguration of the league's upgrading project, which aims at offering a better fan experience by improving operations, brand development and promotions. |