30th Jones Cup basketball tourney kicks off today

The participating men’s teams are from Australia, Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Qatar, the U.S., and host Chinese-Taipei (Taiwan team).

There will be no contest for the women’s division this year.

Players from the national teams of Egypt, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Qatar will fight it off in the nine-day tournament.

Qatar takes part in the tournament for the fifth consecutive year and its national team has six players more than 200 centimeters tall.

Egypt rejoins games for the third time. Its team last came to Taiwan in 1994.

Korea sends a team formed by star players in its collegiate basketball league because its national team is still engaged in qualifications rounds for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games set for next month.

Australia is represented by its team that has attended the world youth basketball championships.

The United States sends star players from top varsity basketball teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The Taiwan team is composed mainly of the younger generation of players led by head coach Cheng Kwang-suk and coaches Cheng Chih-lung and Chou Chun-san.

Australia and Kazakhstan will start the first game at 1 p.m., followed by the Egypt-Qatar game at 3 p.m. and Jordan will take on the U.S. at 5 p.m.

Taiwan will face Korea at 7:30 p.m. following a formal opening ceremony at 7 p.m.

Wang Jen-tar, president of the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association, welcomed all delegates and players to the sporting gathering.

He also thanked the Taipei County government for providing the event with an arena with modern facilities.

Wang said that over the past 30 years, more than 500 teams and close to 100,000 players and sports officials from around the world have participated in the countless games of the tournament.

The association led by Wang will also honor 12 outstanding basketball players of Taiwan selected by journalists, leaders in the basketball community, and basketball fans.

The tournament was created in 1977 to honor Dr. Williams Jones (1906-1981), the British basketball promoter and one of the founders of the amateur basketball federation FIBA.

When serving as FIBA secretary-general, Jones had been supporting Taiwan in the international basketball community.

Because of cross-straight disputes with China, Taiwan was barred from the international basketball competition until 1986.

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