TUATARA STRIKE OUT
Future of NZ’s baseball team in jeopardy
The Auckland Tuatara have withdrawn from the upcoming Australian Baseball League season due to concerns with Covid-19 restrictions, leaving their future in the competition in jeopardy.
New Zealand’s only professional baseball club yesterday formally confirmed their decision to opt out, having initially advised the league of their intent to sit out the season on Monday.
At that time, they were strongly advised to reconsider.
They could now face the wrath of the league, as withdrawing from the season is a breach of their licence agreement and could see it revoked.
Baseball Australia chief executive Cam Vale was not in a position to answer questions when approached by the Herald yesterday, but released a statement indicating his disappointment at the situation.
“The reason for this withdrawal is best summed up as being due to mismanagement by Auckland,” Vale said. “While the ABL and the other teams see the strategic importance of a New Zealandbased team in the league, the ability for Auckland to compete in future seasons is now in serious doubt. The current ownership is in breach of their ABL licence agreement. They will be given 28 days to address this.”
The Tuatara, who were a semifinalist in last year’s competition, are not the only team to withdraw from the season, with Geelong-Korea also opting out.
Going ahead with the upcoming season would have meant the Tuatara would have had to base themselves in Australia much like the Warriors did during their NRL campaign.
The Tuatara had verbal agreements with players local and abroad to play in the upcoming season but were under the impression there would be baseball in Auckland.
With that no longer possible, the majority of those players were unable to commit to playing for the franchise this summer. Many of the Kiwi players would also be unable to play due to work commitments and the need to quarantine in and out of New Zealand as well as playing the season in Australia.
It meant the Tuatara would have to find Australian players, not contracted to any other clubs, to continue playing and the board felt that would undermine the standards the franchise has set.
Tuatara chairman Noel Davies said in a statement yesterday they exhausted every potential angle but Covid-19 had been too big a hurdle to overcome.