The 2022 Australian Senior League Championship will be shifted from Western Australia due to uncertainty surrounding the state’s border reopening.
Baseball Australia today confirmed it had made the difficult decision to find a new host for the May 13-17 event, which was slated to be held in Mandurah at Lakelands Park.
WA’s border had been set to reopen on February 5 but Premier Mark McGowan delayed the move indefinitely due to concerns over the health risk posed by the Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Baseball Australia chief executive Glenn Williams said it was a tough decision to make but with a lack of clarity over the border reopening and WA’s plan to deal with outbreaks from that point, the risk was too high.
“Just like every other difficult decision we’ve had to make during the COVID-19 pandemic this is disappointing and frustrating,” Williams said.
“We just want to play ball but ultimately a lot of planning and logistics go into a national championship and based on our engagement with key stakeholders it would be irresponsible to push ahead with hosting an event in WA this May.
“The support of the City of Mandurah, hosts Peel Diamond Sports and Baseball WA has been significant and we were very excited to hold an event in WA but in the current environment it is simply too risky and we will have to wait until 2023.”
Williams said Baseball Australia would work on finding a new host for the 2022 championship ahead of heading to Mandurah in 2023.
He expected a decision on the new host to be made shortly.