Brisbane Bandits owner Mark Ready said that the Australian Baseball League (ABL) team is planning to establish a professional baseball team in Taiwan to play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
Baseball Australia chief executive officer Cam Vale in February told CPBL commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) that he hopes the CPBL board of directors would accept a proposal, which was then said to be submitted in May, for an ABL team to play in the CPBL’s B league.
The CPBL has yet to receive such a proposal.
Photo: CNA
More teams are needed to increase audience numbers, Ready said yesterday in Taipei, adding that the number of ABL teams would soon increase to eight with the addition of a New Zealand team and a South Korean team.
With nearly equal populations, and a similar player base in professional baseball teams and international ranking, collaboration between the two leagues could help grow audience numbers in both nations, he said.
It would also allow ABL players, who only play three to four months during the baseball season, to find additional opportunities to train during the off-season, Ready said.
“We are still looking for training bases, but we are planning to establish our ‘farm team’ in southern Taiwan,” he said.
Yearly expenses are estimated to reach NT$100 million (US$3.3 million), and although the team would benefit from Australian government subsidies, it would look for potential investors in Taiwan, Ready said.
The team would not make any money playing baseball in Taiwan, but doing so would allow it to spread further into Asia, he said, adding: “That’s a cost we are ready to accept.”
The team is ready to start playing against Taiwanese farm teams, both to familiarize itself with the environment and to scout for potential Taiwanese talent, Ready said, but added that the details of what constitutes a farm team and roster players are still being worked out.
It is up to the CPBL when and under what conditions to allow the team in, he said.
Ready said the ABL hopes that the CPBL would reciprocate by establishing a team in the ABL, adding that should a Taiwanese team wish to play in the ABL season starting late next year, it should finalize its submission before June next year.
“We do not mind amateur teams,” Ready said, adding that the ABL has even suggested that the CPBL could establish a team from players who had not been drafted.
The CPBL has yet to give a definitive answer, Ready said.
The collaboration would help promote baseball, which is not very popular in Australia, Bandits coach David Nilsson said.
Ready said he is still in talks with broadcasting companies on who would have the exclusive broadcasting rights for all 20 of the Bandits’ playoff games this year.
This is due to increased viewership of ABL games by Taiwanese, in no part sparked by the Bandits signing of former Brothers Baseball Club player Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝, also known as Ngayaw Ake), and former Fubon Guardians player Chen Hung-wen (陳鴻文), Ready said.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS