The local baseball league yesterday said it will not offer any support to the national team when they compete in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) next year, adding that the league would let each Taiwanese team decide if they would allow their coaches and players to participate in the tournament.
The league, known as the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), issued the statement following a meeting of league managers yesterday morning.
CPBL president John Wu (吳志揚), Brothers Baseball Club manager Yang Pei-hong (楊培宏), EDA Rhinos general manager Wang Kuei-lin (王癸琳), Taoyuan Lamigo Monkeys general manager Justin Liu (劉玠廷), Uni-President Lions general manager Su Tai-an (蘇泰安) and Sports Administration Director-General Ho Jow-fei (何卓飛) were at the meeting.
“The league will respect the Sports Administration’s decision on the national team head coach for the WBC,” the CPBL said in a statement. “However, because the Sports Administration did not respect the league, the teams or the coaches when it was inquiring about possible candidates for the head coach position, and because the CPBL does not get to play a leading role in a tournament that is made up of mostly professional players, we have decided not to offer any support when the national team is training for the tournament.”
“Each team can decide if its players or coaches can join the national team,” it added.
The administration failed to reach an agreement on possible candidates for the WBC national team head coach position in a meeting with the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association and CPBL on Thursday last week.
However, the administration on Friday announced the position would be filled by Uni-President coach Kuo Tai-yuan (郭泰源), who is also a three-time national team coach.
The CPBL said it could not agree with the decision.
The Lamigo Monkeys said that neither their coach nor their players would compete in the WBC tournament.
Asked if the team’s star player Chen Chin-fong (陳金鋒) would be available to serve as one of the national team’s coaches, Liu said that he could not speak for Chen, as the player’s plans for next year are still undecided.
Both the Uni-President Lions and Brothers Baseball Club said they supported the administration.
The EDA Rhinos said that they would have to discuss the posting with higher management before making a final decision.
Ho said that things would be easier to handle now as the CTBA is in charge of choosing and training players, as well as managing the team during competitions.
The association said that the league’s decision was “regrettable.”
“We thought we had worked with each other well in last year’s World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier 12 Championship Game. The CPBL apparently thought otherwise, and we can only respect that,” association secretary-general Richard Lin (林宗成) said, adding that he hoped that both agencies could figure out a way to work with each other for other top international game.
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