Patriots Basketball Club has withdrawn from this year’s pre-season Basketball tournament set for April 22 to 25.

With 3 days remaining for the competition to get underway at the Kigali Arena, Patriots have chosen to opt-out due to the Covid-19 safety demands of the upcoming Africa Basketball League in which the club will represent Rwanda.

"Given the ongoing global pandemic, BAL has put in place a strict health and safety protocol during BAL and the weeks leading up to the inaugural ceremony. In order to reduce covid-19 potential exposure, BAL has requested that any team participating in BAL this year refrain from playing any games as of April 19th, 2021,” reads a letter addressed to Rwanda Basketball federation from Patriots.

"As such, Patriots formally request to be excused from participating in the BK 2021 pre-season including REG BBC players Jean Jacques Wilson Nshobozwabyosenumukiza and Elie Kaje as they have joined the Patriots for the BAL opportunity,” the letter reads in part.

Patriots Vice President, Jose Edouard Munyangaju, told Times Sport that after being given permission to start training by the Ministry of Sports, the club has pitched camp at Hotel Rouge in Kagugu, as they train from the Kigali Arena.

Teams that will take part in the men's category are: REG, APR, IPRC- Huye, IPRC-Kigali, and United Generations for Basketball, Tigers, and Shoot for the Stars, IPRC-Musanze, UR-CMHS, 30 Plus and UR-Huye.

Those in the women's fray are: IPRC-South, Ubumwe, The Hoops, APR and UR-Huye.