The new season of Chinese Professional Baseball has been postponed again due to virus concerns. It has been rescheduled to open on April 11 and would be the latest season that has ever started.
The Chinese Professional Baseball League previously formed a contingency group and drafted disease prevention measures in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. On March 11, the National Basketball Association suspended the remainder of its season after a player tested positive for COVID-19. On March 12, the CPBL passed a resolution to further postpone the start of the new season by two weeks.
The upcoming Qingming Festival is another key time, so all of our teams unanimously agreed to postpone the opening game to April 11.
April 11 would be the latest the CPBL has ever started a season. Whether games will be played without spectators will depend on the epidemic situation at that time. The objective is for each team to complete playing the 60 games of the first- and second-half seasons. If the Olympic Games qualifier takes place in June and Chinese Taipei qualifies for the Olympics, only a single season will be played. If the qualifier is postponed, the season might not end until the end of the year. CPBL Commissioner John Wu says even a league as important as the National Basketball Association suspended its season due to COVID-19, and the CPBL is preparing for the worst case scenario.
I think stricter standards are unavoidable. The CPBL isn't a big league, which means that if any player, manager, or whomever receives a positive diagnosis, that person had probably been in contact with everyone else on every other team. If that is the case, then we would have to make the decision about whether to suspend all games.
The CPBL will continue to ask players and staff to self-monitor. It also passed a resolution to play government-run exhibition games without spectators. This resolution will apply to the minor league season opener on March 17 to prevent cluster infections. The Chinese Taipei Baseball Association says many leagues are playing without spectators, while the World Baseball Softball Confederation announced that the Americas Qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was scheduled to take place from March 22 to March 26, has been postponed until further notice.
就算組成應變小組,提出防疫計畫,有鑑於武漢肺炎大流行,NBA因球員確診停賽,中職12日傍晚決議,新球季再往後順延兩週。
中職會長 吳志揚(109.3.12)表示:「加上這個清明佳節,是一個,另外一個關鍵期,所以我們所有球團一致決議,我們的開幕賽,要延後到4月11號預訂。」
4月11日開打,創下中職歷年最晚開打紀錄,到時是否閉門賽,得視疫情發展,目標是把上下半季每一球隊60場例行賽打完,假若六月要打6搶1,也要打奧運,改為單一球季,如果6搶1又延,恐怕得到年底才能完賽。吳志揚說,像NBA這麼大的組織都因武漢肺炎停賽,目前先預做最壞打算。
中職會長 吳志揚(109.3.12)表示:「我看很難避免更嚴格的標準,因為中職是一個不是很大的聯盟,任何一個主要的成員、球員或教練或什麼,如果有確診,其實在幾乎每一個球員,其他隊的球員,都會接觸到,那時候可能就必須要做出,整個停賽的決定。」
繼續要求隊職員做好自主健康管理,中職也決議,原本開放球迷入場的官辦熱身賽,改採閉門賽,17日開打的二軍例行賽比照辦理。避免群聚感染,棒協表示,最近的大專聯賽,不開放觀眾進場,世界棒壘球總會則宣布,原訂22-26的美洲奧運資格賽延期,討論後再公布時間。