HAVANA (AP) — The United States will allow Cuban Major Leaguers to represent their country of origin in next year’s World Baseball Classic.
The decision announced Saturday in a press release from the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) could be a big step in turning the Cuban national team back into heavy hitters on an international stage.
Major League Baseball confirmed Monday that the United States has granted the license to FCB. It clears the way for MLB stars like José Abreu, Yordan Alvarez, Randy Arozarena, Yoán Moncada and Luis Robert to play for Cuba at the WBC in March if they decide to accept a possible wild card.
It is up to each country’s national governing body to choose the players on their WBC team. Final 30-man rosters are due on February 7 for the WBC, which begins March 8 with Cuba taking on the Netherlands in Taiwan.
While the sport of choice in much of Latin America is soccer, baseball dominates in Cuba. The island has gained fame around the world for its baseball talent.
But in recent years, hundreds of those players have defected from Cuba to play professionally elsewhere. In particular, many have become residents of the United States and stars with major league teams in the US.
The defections are due in large part to a not-so-uncommon geopolitical dispute between the two coastal neighbors, leaving Cuban players caught in the middle.
Cuban athletes competing on the island cannot earn a salary under the communist government, which banned professional sports after the Cuban revolution 60 years ago.
Long-standing US-imposed sanctions make it largely impossible for Cubans to play professionally for an American team without defecting. Meanwhile, historically Cuba has not allowed Cuban players who defected from the rosters of their national teams.
The defections have affected Cuba’s performance in international baseball competitions. For example, the Cuban baseball team failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after years of winning medals in the sport.
In November, Cuba changed its tune and invited several of the best players who defected to represent the country in the World Baseball Classic, a tournament that features some of the best players in the sport competing in Japan, Taiwan and the US. .
Weeks later, Cuban officials accused the Biden administration of preventing those players from representing Cuba.
In a statement on Saturday, FCB president Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo called the permit a “positive step” and said the Cuban federation should have more information on the team’s WBC roster once it has more details about it. the license granted by the USA.
At the same time, Perez Pardo also criticized the US, tweeting on Saturday that “it is arbitrary and discriminatory that you need a permit from the government of this country (USA) to attend” the WBC.
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AP baseball writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.
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