I just happened to come across an article published yesterday on the BBC website about Great Britain’s withdrawal from the Olympic qualifier in Taiwan.  The tournament starts tomorrow and it’s sad to think that Team GB had earned the right to be there, only for this opportunity to be taken away due to lack of funding.  There’s not a great deal of optimism in the article, although it does note that our silver medal at the 2007 European Baseball Championship means we qualify for the 2009 World Championship (funded by the IBAF).

Rumours had been spreading for a week or so, longer if you include the initial reports that Team GB were struggling to come up with the funds to pay for the trip.  Now it has been confirmed: Great Britain has withdrawn from the final Olympic qualifier set to take place in March.  Germany will take Team GB’s place.

Having come so close to qualifying automatically via the European Championships last year, this is a bitter blow for the players who have now had their chance taken away from them through no fault of their own.  Although Team GB’s odds of making it through the qualifier were probably slim, they had fully earned the right to give it their best shot.

The official statement raises many questions about the future of the Great Britain team as we face up to the prospect of “no external funding” due to baseball’s declassification as an Olympic sport.  I’ll give the issue some thought and publish my views over the weekend.

UPDATE: The IBAF statement on this claims “among other concerns, Great Britain cited issues with player availability as to why it is unable attend the qualification tournament”.  Possibly this is due to some of the squad being involved in minor league spring training camps in the U.S.  The British statement clearly says that their withdrawal was due to “lack of funds” though.

During what should be a time of Xmas cheer, it was depressing to read about the struggles the Great Britain baseball team is facing. 

Back in September, we covered the European Baseball Championships.  If Team GB had beaten the Netherlands in their final game, they would have won the tournament and immediately qualified for the 2008 Olympics.   Unfortunately they were defeated 6-1 (the Netherlands are the European baseball powerhouse, it should be noted) and the British team ultimately finished second.  This was still an excellent achievement and it left the door open for Olympic qualification via a tournament that will take place in Taiwan next March.

It looks like that opportunity is going to be taken away from the players though, as the British Baseball Federation cannot afford the £50,000 needed to pay for the trip.  Their plight was highlighted by the Daily Telegraph last week and I guess we can only hope that someone reads the story and will come forward and sponsor the team.  After putting in so much effort to qualify for the Taiwan event, it would be a real shame for their dreams to be dashed in this way.