Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) president Chao Shou-po (趙守博) yesterday in Kuala Lumpur criticized Taiwan’s prosecutors for their handling of the latest match-fixing scandal, saying they had violated the principle of confidentiality during the investigation.
Chao, speaking publicly for the first time since the scandal erupted earlier this week, accused prosecutors of leaking information that “destroyed players’ lives and sacrificed the reputation of the league and the teams.”
“They not only released names but also said that more than half the players on the Elephants team were involved. Isn’t that violating confidentiality? They also said pro baseball has played its last game,” an agitated Chao said.
He said he was particularly irked by prosecutors’ comments that the players “willingly” engaged in the game-fixing scheme.
“If there had not been anybody tempting the players, would they have contacted the bookies on their own?” Chao asked.
He urged judicial authorities and the government to crack down on the gambling syndicates that have been behind five major scandals in the league’s 20-year history but have rarely been convicted for their crimes, seeing their cases drag on for nearly a decade.
“The fundamental solution is for the government to show real determination in prosecuting and punishing illegal syndicates,” Chao said.
The alleged involvement of Elephants players, including Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) — the first Taiwanese pitcher to ever compete in the US Major Leagues — dealt yet another harsh blow to the CPBL’s already tarnished image.
Since 1996, five major game-fixing scandals have been reported, but this marked the first time that Elephant players were involved.
Chao yesterday said he would try to convince the general manager of the Brother Elephants not to disband the team for the sake of pro baseball’s future development.
Elephants general manager Hung Rei-ho (洪瑞河) is considering disbanding the team — one of only four in the CPBL — after 12 of his players were implicated in allegations they colluded with gambling syndicates to throw games in the recently concluded CPBL regular season.
Prosecutors said Elephants pitchers Wu Po-hsien (吳保賢) and Wang Jing-li (王勁力) had confessed to accepting money from the “Windshield Wipers” gang in exchange for throwing games.
As one of the two teams that has been in the league since it was founded 20 years ago and the franchise with the strongest fan base, the Elephants’ disappearance could spell the demise of the CPBL, Chao said.
“How can the professional baseball league carry on with only three teams?” Chao said in Malaysia, where he is attending the Asia Pacific Boy Scouts Jamboree.
But Chao said he believed the Brother Elephants could still be salvaged.
“Even with half of the players involved, the team can fire them and recruit new members. Besides, the problem has only involved players, not management,” he said.
Chao suggested that fans would recover their confidence in the Brother Elephants if they added good players with integrity, comparing the challenge to companies restoring their image after suffering serious debacles.
In related a development, police and prosecutors yesterday denied former Brother Elephants’ pitcher Chuang Yu-lin’s (莊侑霖) allegation that several officers from the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s Southern Crime Cracking Center were involved in the latest match-fixing scandal.
“I must say, such an allegation is not accurate at all. Our investigation did not show any possibility of police officers being involved in the case,” Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman Cheng Hsin-hung (鄭鑫宏) said.
The National Police Agency also issued a press release saying that its internal affairs officers did not discover anything unusual at the center.
Cheng yesterday said the prosecutors were also investigating players’ family members after Chuang told prosecutors that some of them had organized their own gambling gangs. Prosecutors have not discovered any connections between the family members and the “Windshield Wipers” gang, Cheng said.
In response to criticism about the way the prosecutors have handled the case, Cheng said the prosecutors knew what they were doing.
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