A series of baseball exhibition games between Taiwan and Japan, scheduled for March, has been postponed due to concerns over outbreaks of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the two countries, Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) said Wednesday.

Following discussions between the CBPL and the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) of Japan, a decision was taken to push back the series, in the interest of the players’ health and safety, CPBL commissioner Tsai Chi-Chang (???)said in a statement.

The two sides will hold further discussions to decide on a new date for the exhibition series, which was scheduled for March 5 and 6 at the Tokyo Dome, Tsai said.

The preparations for the games started last year, and both the CPBL and NPB had been optimistic about the series, but with the recent outbreaks of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the two counties, the players are not willing to compete in the event, he said.

Concerns about epidemic prevention and safety also prompted the two sides to suspend the series, Tsai said.

According to media reports, Uni-Lions manager Lin Yueh-Ping (???) had been selected to lead the Taiwan team to Japan for the two-game series.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel