(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Chinese Taipei withdraws from Baseball Week Haarlem; Curaçao replaces
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
Chinese Taipei will not participate in this years 30th edition of the international Baseball Week Haarlem, the Organizing Committee announced on Tuesday (April 12).
The National Baseball Federation has to withdraw its team, as it there currently is a national travel ban in Taiwan for sports teams to leave the country due to national COVID-19 measurements.
Curaçao will replace Chinese Taipei in the upcoming tournament, which is organized every two years in the historic Pim Mulier Baseball Stadium in Haarlem (Netherlands), which is the playing site since the second edition in 1963.
Chinese Taipei has participated in thirteen earlier editions of the tournament, most of them with its National Team, compiled from the best university players from the country.
The team first participated in 1984, then again in 1988 and 1990.
Since 2000, Taipei has participated in each edition (ten in a row).
The team also was to participate in 2020, when the 30th edition was originally scheduled.
However, that tournament was cancelled due to the coronavirus-pandemic.
The last time that Chinese Taipei participated in 2018, the team finished in second place, its highest position ever in the tournament.
For Curaçao, this will markt the third time that it participates in the Baseball Week.
The last time was in 2016.
The first time was in 1966 when the island was part of the Netherlands Antilles.
Since 2010, Curaçao is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
In earlier editions, the National Team of the Netherlands Antilles participated six times.
In 1996, the National Team of Aruba participated.
Besides Curaçao, the other participants this year come from Cuba, Italy, Japan (which was the winner in 2018), the USA and host Netherlands.
The tournament opens on July 8.
The Final will be played on July 15.
On Tuesday, the tournament released the following press release:
Chinese Taipei has withdrawn from participating in the 30th edition of the Baseball Week Haarlem due to a nationwide COVID travel ban for sports teams.
Curaçao replaces the current number two in the world ranking and thus gets the chance to manifest itself on an international stage.
From 8 to 15 July, the anniversary edition of the Baseball Week Haarlem, the largest baseball event in Europe, will take place in the Pim Mulier Stadium.
In addition to Team Kingdom of the Netherlands and Curaçao, Team USA, Japan, Italy and Cuba also participate.
Tournament director Léon Ravestein:
''We regret that our loyal participant Chinese Taipei cannot be present during this edition.
Their teams are always good for beautiful and exciting games.
With the coming of Curaçao we have a fantastic addition to a strong field of participants.''
General Director of the KNBSB Stefaan Eskes applauds Curaçao's participation in the Baseball Week:
''The Kingdom is even more strongly represented with the addition of Curaçao.
This is what we as KNBSB have been aiming for since our talks in Curaçao in February.
It is a sign of the good relationship between the KNBSB and FEBEKO that we as a Kingdom Team and Curaçao can be active in the same tournament.''
(April 12)
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