Black Sox softball tour to Venezuela cancelled for security reasons
By Tony Smith
The New Zealand Black Sox softball team have been forced to abort November’s planned tour to Venezuela due to political unrest but they will play a mini-tournament in Argentina instead.
Softball New Zealand (SNZ) chief executive Tony Giles said the Las Americas Cup tournament set to feature eight of the world’s top teams had been cancelled.
“It came down to security reasons around political unrest in Venezuela, particularly in Caracas, and a little bit of fear around the Zika virus, which has since been mitigated,” Giles said.
The New Zealand government’s Safe Travel website lists Venezuela as presenting “some risk” to “extreme risk” in some areas.
Giles said the warnings had made it impossible for the Black Sox to get travel insurance to visit Venezuela, but “in the end the organisers cancelled the whole tournament”.
The Venezuela tournament – billed by Black Sox head coach Mark Sorenson as “a virtual mini world series” – was to be critical to the Black Sox’s buildup for the 2017 world championships in Canada.
Sorenson had been keen to tour Venezuela to test his players’ resilience, but that was before the travel warnings were issued.
Giles said after the tournament was cancelled SNZ had contacted the Argentina Softball Federation, “who have agreed to host ourselves and the Czech Republic” in a mini-tournament in Parana.