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BTaipei. Thousands of fans packed into a Taipei stadium for the opening of Taiwan’s baseball season despite a string of recent scandals that have dented the sport’s reputation.

A near-capacity crowd of more than 9,000 fans turned out for the game between Brother Elephants and Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions, held on Saturday at the Tienmu baseball stadium, the United Daily News reported.

The Elephants, the team hit hardest by the match-fixing scandals that have rattled professional baseball in Taiwan, edged out last season’s champion Lions 1-0.

“We felt our burden is even higher than before, and felt we must let the fans see that the CPBL [Chinese Professional Baseball League] got off to a good start,” Elephants coach Feng Sheng-hsien said.

The Sinon Bulls, located in Taichung City, and La New Bears in Kaohsuing County make up the rest of the four-team league.

The Elephants, the professional league’s most popular team and joint-oldest with the Lions, have sacked 18 players for their alleged roles in match-fixing scandals that have seen prosecutors charge 24 people, including three players, with gambling and fraud.

Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou, who attended the opening ceremony at Tienmu on Saturday, pledged to crack down on the match-fixers and encourage reforms so that “the sport could again become Taiwan’s pride.”

Premier Wu Den-yih has approved a four-year baseball revival program that will cost the government around two billion Taiwan dollars ($62.89 million).

The match-fixing scandals surfaced last year, with reports that some players received cash, cars and the services of prostitutes from bookmakers in return for deliberately losing games.

 


Agence France-Presse