First Baseball5 World Cup qualifiers confirmed for April in Malaysia

First Baseball5 World Cup qualifiers confirmed for April in Malaysia
28/12/2019
The countdown to the first ever WBSC Baseball5 World Cup has begun. The WBSC Asia Baseball5 Commission has invited all Asian members to participate in the Asian Cup Baseball5, both for open age and U-15 categories.

The first-ever Baseball5 World Cup continental qualifier will be held from 9-12 April 2020 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission will organize the Asia Cup Baseball5 tournaments (open and U-15) to qualify one team each to the Baseball5 World Cups 2020.

Two days before the events in Malaysia, the commission will host a Game Officials Seminar to introduce all the attendees to the new WBSC Management System.

The WBSC Asia Baseball5 Commission has invited all Asian members to participate in the two World Cup qualifiers, with one berth in the 2020 World Cups at stake. Each country/territory is allowed to present one team per category, and only the top Asian team in each category will be granted a spot in the World Cup.

There will be two categories at the Asia Cup Baseball5 tournament: Open Mixed Team and U15 Mixed Team. Each team will be composed of eight players (four male and four female) plus two delegate-officials (coach and team manager).

The first-ever Baseball5 World Cup will be held in Mexico in December 2020, for open age and U-15 categories (both for mixed squads).

Game Officials Seminar

From 7–8 April 2020 the WBSC Asia Baseball5 Commission will celebrate the first Baseball5 Game Officials Seminar, to introduce the recently presented Baseball5 Game Management System, intended to considerably simplify and standardise Baseball5 competitions. 

With the new Baseball5 Management System, the traditional figures of Umpire, Scorer and Technical Commissioner have evolved into the role of Game Official, more accurately reflecting the "all you need is a ball to play" philosophy of Baseball5. After the two-day seminar, the Baseball5 Game Officials will have complete knowledge of the game and will be able to manage all aspects of the competition.

The new Game Management System highlights the major features of Baseball5 competitions and games management, and it is intended to be a complement to the WBSC Baseball5 Rulebook 2019.

Each country/territory (whether separate or joint national federation) is allowed to send a maximum of two participants for the Seminar.

WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission

On July 2019 the Baseball Federation Asia (BFA) and Softball Asia (SA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the formation of the WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission. The mission of the WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission is to promote and develop the new five-on-five Baseball5 discipline across Asia, attracting more youth and athletes to the already 65 million people who practice baseball and softball in over 140 countries.