INQUIRER Sports

TAIPEI – A Taiwanese baseball team has sacked four players amid snowballing match-fixing allegations plaguing the island's favorite sport, reports said Saturday.

The Brother Elephants team made the move after at least two players confessed to prosecutors to taking money from a gambling ring, said the Apple Daily.

The team also decided not to renew the contract of Tsao Chin-hui, the first Taiwanese pitcher to play in the US Major League, over claims that he received money and gifts to fix matches, it said.

So far, six bookies have been taken into custody and 13 players have been named as defendants in the probe into alleged match-fixing during the May-September season, according to prosecutors.

The case has dealt a new blow to a sport already hit by a string of similar scandals that have outraged fans in recent years.

Last year, Taiwan's baseball league banned the Media T-Rex team over match-fixing allegations implicating the team's management and three players, among others.