Dates for the postponed 3x3 basketball Home Nations Commonwealth Games qualifiers are yet to be announced ©Getty Images

New dates for the Home Nations 3x3 basketball qualifiers for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, initially scheduled to take place in Scotland on December 28 and 29, remain undecided, insidethegames has been told.

The competition was due to be held at the Lagoon Centre in Glasgow and finalise the field for Birmingham 2022, where 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair basketball are due to make their Commonwealth Games debuts.

Qualification for the running version of the discipline was scheduled to take place on December 28, before wheelchair 3x3 basketball qualifiers were set to be played the following day.

The event was due to be the first in which the International Basketball Federation and International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Europe jointly held qualifiers.

Hosts Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were due to battle it out, with one berth available in each of the four categories - men's and women's 3x3 basketball and men's and women's 3x3 wheelchair basketball.

However, a surge in Omicron COVID-19 cases in Scotland caused the postponement of the event in mid-December, with basketballscotland announcing it will "look to reschedule when it is safe to do so and will inform when we have a new date."

It said: "While this was not an easy decision to make so close to the event, the health and safety of all our players, coaches, officials and spectators is of paramount importance to us. 

"To run our event with all the medical advice, would be avoiding our duty of care, and we are not willing to take that chance."

Summerfield Park was refurbished last summer to commemorate the ticket ballot for local residents for Birmingham 2022 opening and prior to 3x3 basketball making its Commonwealth Games debut ©Getty Images
Summerfield Park was refurbished last summer to commemorate the ticket ballot for local residents for Birmingham 2022 opening and prior to 3x3 basketball making its Commonwealth Games debut ©Getty Images

Now, almost a month after the announcement that the competition would be postponed, a new date is still not yet known.

"Unfortunately there is no confirmed date as to when the postponed 3x3 basketball qualifying tournaments are set to take place yet, but we will announce it as soon as we know," basketballscotland told insidethegames.

Scotland introduced tightened COVID-19 rules in December to combat the spread of the Omicron variant, which is highly transmissible.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced there would be no restrictions on sport, though outdoor crowds were limited to 500.

On December 13, the day before Sturgeon announced the new restrictions, Scotland recorded 3,177 positive cases, while more than 500 people were in hospital with coronavirus.

The qualifiers were postponed on December 16, two days after the new rules were announced.