Basketball New Zealand has withdrawn the Tall Blacks and the men's 3X3 team from the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments in Serbia and Austria.
Tall Blacks perform the haka Photo: Photosport
With a rise in tournament costs caused by quarantine protocols, it was decided a packed schedule which includes qualifiers for World Cups, Olympic Games and Asia Cups is too much for the national body to undertake in one financial year.
The decision comes after FIBA requested Basketball New Zealand's confirmation of entries for these events.
Basketball New Zealand Chief Executive, Iain Potter, said earlier this month that these sacrifices would have been avoided if it wasn't for the Covid-19 pandemic.
"We would have been able to participate in everything because the cost of flights was way lower, there was no quarantining cost, there was ease of travel," he said, "Everything was easier before Covid, it was a challenge but Covid has taken the complexity and difficulty to a whole new level."
After consulting senior players and the Player Association in recent weeks, the BBNZ Board agreed to 'prioritise events that qualify into long-term cycles.'
With that in mind, the Board confirmed investment for 'must-play' competitions including the Tall Ferns and Tall Blacks FIBA Asia Cup cycles, which qualifies for the FIBA World Cup cycles, which is a qualification route to the 2024 Olympics.
BBNZ has also added the FIBA 3X3 Asia Cups (men and women) as they lead to the 2022 FIBA 3X3 World Cups.
Potter said the board must make strategic decisions that are financially responsible.
"Ultimately the Board agreed to focus on how we will maintain our responsibility to play in international competitions and ensure we can still compete in the future, and to make sure our men's and women's programmes are given equal opportunity," said Potter.
Even with additional funding BBNZ would need an added three-quarters of a million dollars investment boost to participate in all scheduled 2021 events.
"The players, staff and the Board realise we are not operating like we did pre-Covid. For an international team, everything is more expensive. In these unprecedented times we must consolidate, or we risk something far greater and that's not seeing any international basketball for the Tall Ferns or Tall Blacks over the next four-year cycle."