After discussions with School Sport New Zealand (SSNZ) and in line with other major sports, Basketball New Zealand has made the tough decision to cancel all basketball events for winter tournament week (beginning 31 August 2020):
- Junior Secondary Schools Premierships (Zone 1, 2, 3, 4)
- Secondary Schools Northern Cup
- Secondary Schools Central Cup
- Secondary Schools Southern Cup
- Secondary Schools ‘A’ North Island Premierships
- Secondary Schools ‘A’ South Island Premierships
- Secondary Schools ‘AA’ Premierships (Zone 1, 2, 3, 4)
With the disruption to the 2020 sporting calendar, freeing up winter tournament week will provide a much-needed opportunity for community level sport to fit a truncated winter season of basketball into the third term. Many of the venues that would normally be utilised for Winter Tournament Week will also be required for community sport.
The 2020 3×3 National Championships, that were postponed from March, have also been cancelled.
Basketball New Zealand still hopes to hold the New Zealand Secondary Schools National Championships in the first week of the October holidays. This will mean the number of teams, the structure of the event and qualifying processes may need changing. Possible changes will be considered in discussion with SSNZ, as well as being subject to Government COVID-19 restrictions. This should become clearer as the Government announces further possible restrictions under the Alert Level system.
