China shorten season

The Chinese finished 11th at the recent world championship and China Basketball Association (CBA) officials said the reduced fixture list and a new rule designed to give foreign players more game time were a response to a sports ministry directive.

"We are quite aware that the changes to the league season will affect the interests of sponsors and clubs but the league must conform to national interests ahead of the 2008 Olympics,"

CBA league operations director Hao Guohua told the Beijing News daily.

The new season, which starts on Oct. 8, will also include a 50-day hiatus to allow the national team to prepare for the Asian Games, which open in Doha, Qatar on Dec. 1.

The format changes also include a "playoff draft", in which teams that make the playoffs can draft one foreign and one Chinese player from the teams who missed out.

This is aimed at reducing the game time of national team players and making the playoffs more interesting, CBA officials told the paper.

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming, China's top player, has lamented a lack of support from his team mates at the world championship in Japan and said young Chinese players should be encouraged to go abroad to gain experience.

"During previous season breaks, I have watched the CBA playoffs," Yao told Wednesday's Oriental Morning Post.

"It can be said that over the last few years our progress has been very, very slow."