Last week, Softball Asia (SA) held an Executive Council meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the eve of the first Baseball5 Asia Cup. Among other topics, the meeting served to establish the continental calendar for 2023.
“This meeting is very important for us to move forward and get back on track,” said WBSC Secretary General and SA President Beng Choo Low. “We in Asia have a lot to do to catch up in softball which has progressed tremendously, and the Covid-19 was no help,” Low.
SA decided to host this meeting along with the Asia Cup Baseball5 so that members can witness the tournament and have first-hand knowledge on how the tournament is managed and experience the new 5-on-5 sport discipline.
Softball Asia calendar
During the meeting, the SA Executive Council awarded different WBSC Softball World Cup continental qualifiers for 2023 and 2024.
The Women’s Softball Asia Cup 2023 will serve as a qualifier for the World Cup Group Stage to be played in the summer of 2023 in Italy, Ireland and Spain. The continental event, which will qualify three teams from Asia, will be played in Korea between April and mid May next year.
The U-15 Women Softball Asia Cup 2023, a qualifier for the World Cup to be played in Japan in October 2023, will be hosted in China with the dates to be confirmed at a later stage.
In addition, the WBSC U-18 Men’s Softball World Cup qualifier will be hosted in Thailand or Malaysia, no later than June.
Finally, Malaysia will organise, in collaboration with Softball Asia,the the Slow Pitch Softball Asia Cup 2023 and the U-18 Baseball5 Asia Cup.
Chinese Taipei will host the U-18 Women Softball Asia Cup in December 2023 in Puli, where two new fields have been built; while Korea will organise the Asia Cup Baseball5 Open, qualifier for 2024 World Cup.
Tentatively, Saudi Arabia will host the next Men’s Softball Asia Cup.
