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SEVENOAKS SUNS DESERVE CUP CRACK

Renee Busch believes Sevenoaks Suns should get a shot at playing in the rearranged WBBL Cup final.

A decision is expected this week on how to proceed with the showpiece which was postponed from its planned date of last Sunday when Leicester Riders were forced to withdraw due to Covid positives.

That followed the unanticipated withdrawal of Sevenoaks who opted to pause their season for six weeks due to public health concerns surrounding the virus, with the league initially drafting in Nottingham Wildcats – their victims in the semis – as a replacement.

Now the WBBL faces a decision on how to plan in the finale, which has been provisionally scheduled for a Sky Sports slot on Friday 12 February at 5pm in Manchester – and who will take part, with Cardiff Archers also in the mix after they were asked to fill the void left by Leicester.

Could the Suns be handed a second, first shot? “Definitely,” Busch insists. “I hope that we would be able to play as the original finalists. I think it would be a great game.”

There is no regrets, the Great Britain international insists, over prioritising personal sanctity over playing, even as the Women’s British Basketball League faces an increasingly torturous path towards completing this campaign with so many postponements and other clubs either self-isolating or putting their participation on ice.

“It all came after the (Christmas) holidays when we were planning to reassemble,” Busch reveals.

“The news and everything we were hearing about the hospitals, the state of the country, the new strains of the virus … the reality of us coming back from being with our families or other bubbles really hit.

“We felt we had to be realistic. We thought that a pause was the safest thing for us, given how many of us have other day jobs or older family members we live with.”

But was the chance to lift the Cup and add it to the league title picked up in 2019 a complicating factor in the group think?

Absolutely, she adds.

“One of the things we were considering at first was only to play in the Cup final and do that as safely as possible.

“Maybe pay for testing for that one game. Or does that go against everything we’ve said in pausing all of our league games?

“That was a consideration given the Sky coverage and that it was a big game we’d earned.”

Hear the full interview with Renee Busch on the MVP Cast later this week. Subscribe now via your preferred podcast provider.

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