By Zhao Rui (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-10 09:17

Title favorites Xinjiang Guanghui are likely to be kicked out of the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs for cheating as they misrepresented a player's identity.

The team's American point guard Guan Xiuchang was found using a fake Chinese ID as Xinjiang, which rank No 2 behind the Guangdong Horses after the 30-game regular season. This violates the regulation that a club can only have two overseas players.

Guan Xiuchang

The club will be stripped of all 18 games Guan played in as per league rules, making the team ineligible to enter the eight-team playoff draw.

The CBA has yet to hand down its official punishment even though it promised to do so yesterday. The verdict is now expected to be announced this evening.

"We need more discussion on the matter because it is really serious," said league director Hao Guohua. "We need more information about Guan's identity and how the thing happened in Xinjiang. We will announce the result as soon as possible."

After years lingering near the bottom of the league, the Xinjiang side made giant steps this season after importing former San Antonio Spurs center Menk Bateer. The team finished the regular season with a franchise-best 26 wins against four losses.

The 27-year-old Guan, who returned to the US on December 26 and hasn't played since, is reportedly a Vietnamese-American and had played for Yunnan Honghe with the name of "Ma Xiuchang" in 2004. He entered people's sights on December 9, when he scored a season-high 20 points against Shandong Huangjin.

The club maintains their innocence, saying officials were unaware of Guan's background until it was exposed in the media.

But Titan Sports reports that Xinjiang have refused all interview requests regarding Guan and have declined to answer the question of why Guan, a player from Heilongjiang Province according to his registered information before the season, cannot speak a single word of Chinese.

In a poll conducted by Internet portal Sina.com, 78 percent of participants think Xinjiang should be disqualified from the playoffs, and 10 percent believe the team should not play in the CBA league at all.

If Xinjiang were kicked out of the playoffs, it would be the harshest punishment meted out in the CBA in 10 years.