The Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) announced that 12 National Teams would participate in the third Women's Baseball Asia Cup from 21 May to 2 June in Hong Kong: World No. 1 Japan, No. 2 Chinese Taipei, No. 10 Korea, No. 11 Hong Kong, No. 14 Philippines, No.15 China, No. 18 India, No. 19 Pakistan and unranked Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
The tournament will have two phases.
In the opening round, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and will play from 21 to 23 May for two spots in the championship round. Hong Kong will also participate in the opening round but has already been guaranteed a pass to the championship round.
The top-two finishers from the opening round will advance to the championship round and face Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Korea and the Philippines from 26 May to 1 June. The top three finishers will earn a spot in the IX WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup.
Three teams will advance to the first stage of the World Cup. Japan is already qualified. thus the fourth-place team will go to the World Cup if Japan finishes within the first three places.
Japan (ASIA 1) and the top finishers of the qualifier (ASIA 2) will be included in Group B (Miyoshi City, Japan, 13-17 September) together with World No. 5 Venezuela, No. 7 Cuba, No. 9 Puerto Rico and No. 16 France.
The other two teams qualified through the Asia Cup (ASIA 3, ASIA 4) will be included in Group A (8-13 August, Thunder Bay, Canada) together with No. 3 Canada, No. 4 USA, No. 8 Australia and No. 12 Mexico.
BFA also announced that Taiwan will host in November the Asian Baseball Championship, a qualifier to the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2024 while China will host the U-15 Asian Baseball Championship.
On a final note, BFA revealed that 13 teams will participate in the baseball tournament of the 19th Asian Games, scheduled from 24 September to 7 October in Hangzhou, China.
