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.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS