WBC scheduled for next year, postponed to 2023. 8:54 on May 12 due to the spread of new corona infection.
Regarding the WBC = World Baseball Classic of baseball scheduled to be held in March next year, one of the organizers of the tournament, the Major League Organization, decided to postpone it to 2023 due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection I understand. In the future, the postponement will be officially decided with the approval of the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
The WBC started in 2006 as the world's number one baseball tournament, and next year the fifth tournament was to be held in the United States, Japan and Taiwan.
In the next year's tournament, the participation limit was expanded from 16 teams to 20 teams, 16 teams including Japan who participated in the previous tournament have already decided to participate, and the remaining 4 teams will be decided by qualifying.
According to an official of the Major League Organization, the Major League Organization abandoned to hold the next year's competition due to the postponement of the qualifying scheduled for March due to the new coronavirus and the spread of infection. However, it has decided to postpone it to 2023.
This policy is expected to be officially decided in the future with the approval of the Major League Players Association and the WBSC = World Baseball Softball Federation, which are involved in hosting the tournament.
Japan has won two consecutive WBC titles since the first tournament, and the next tournament will have a third victory.
However, when the WBC was held next year, it was held in the same year as the Tokyo Olympics, where Japan aims for a gold medal, and there was concern that the schedule of professional baseball would be affected and the burden on the players would increase.