Pres. Ma vows to help sound development of pro baseball

As prosecutors continue to investigate a game fixing scandal in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) , in which many players from its most popular franchise, the Brother Elephants, have been implicated, Ma urged the public not to become disheartened or think negatively of professional baseball players.

“There is nothing wrong with professional baseball. What has been wrong are those who have hurt the sport,” Ma said at a meeting with his advisers on sports to discuss the future of professional baseball at the Presidential Office.

The president stressed that “baseball is a national sport” and pledged that the government will be firm and adopt effective measures to help the league build an environment free from games being rigged.

The game-fixing scandal was the latest in a series of events that has caused convulsions within Taiwan's national pastime and forced the government to react.

Taiwan's national team suffered the ultimate embarrassment when it lost to China in both the 2008 Summer Olympics and the World Baseball Classic earlier this year, resulting in widespread recriminations within the sports community and intense criticism of the government for allowing the sport to fall to such lows.

As a result, the government launched a project to invest NT$1.26 billion (US$39 million) over the next four years to upgrade the level of the sport.

Ma noted that since the disappointment of earlier this year, interest in CPBL was rekindled, with viewership doubling and attendance at the Taiwan Series, which went the full seven games this year, reaching 100,000 for only the second time in Taiwan's baseball history.

CPBL President Chao Shou-po, one of those attending Friday's meeting, suggested several measures that could improve the local environment for professional baseball, including a revision of the Statute for Preventing Organized Crime that would impose steeper penalties on groups involved in underground gambling activities.

He also urged the government to encourage state-run enterprises to sponsor professional baseball teams and pay more attention to amateur-level teams by investing more in grassroots baseball.

Lastly, he urged the government to provide tax incentives to professional baseball franchises, which operate in the red almost every year.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email