MEXICO CITY, Mexico.- The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) recently announced the game schedule for the Premier 12 2024 and it is now official that Cuba has a rival for its debut in the tournament.
The Cuban team will battle against the Dominican Republic in its first match on Wednesday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m. local time in Taiwan.
At the Tianmu Stadium and as part of group B, they will play a game the next day against Korea, at 6:00 p.m. Friday the 15th will be a day of rest for the Cubans and on Saturday the 16th they will face Australia from 12:00 in the same stadium. On the calendar, those from the Island will close with games against Japan and Taipei.
If the Cubans manage to qualify among the first two in the group, they will travel to Japan for the Super Round.
The 12 participating teams, classified through the WBSC/KONAMI World Ranking, already know their groups and the venues of the matches they will face. Cuba has been placed in group B of the contest, based at the Vantelin Dome Nagoya stadiums in Japan and the Taipei Dome next to the Tianmu in Taipei, China. The Cuban team will begin its participation on November 13. The group also includes South Korea, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Japan and China.
The tournament will take place from November 10 to 24 in Mexico, Taiwan and Japan.
Mexico will host Group A in Guadalajara and Tepic. There they will face the United States, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Panama and Puerto Rico.
The tournament will follow a similar format to previous editions, with an initial phase followed by the Super Round, where the two best teams in each group will compete. The Super Round will be held at the Tokyo Dome from November 21 to 23, while the medal games are scheduled for the 24th of the same month.
Cuba secured its classification by occupying position number 8 in the WBSC Ranking, at the time of the cut-off for classification, on December 31, 2023, with 3,121 points.
Echoing the information, the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) said it was in talks with Cuban players who compete in foreign leagues. As announced by the president of the entity, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, it is expected that those with experience in the country or in the National Series will be prioritized in the selection of the team.
The integration of MLB players could be key to the aspirations of the Cuban Government in the tournament, although the possibility of their participation has not yet emerged. If it were approved, it would depend on the personal decision of the players. Taking into account similar previous contexts, a large number refuse to play with the Cuba team, commanded by the regime authorities.
In 2022, after the country’s sports authorities called some emigrated players to join the Cuba team that would compete in the V World Baseball Classic, the renowned former baseball player René Arocha considered that the exiled baseball players should play with a team from the Cuban Federation. of Baseball “when there is a free Cuba, and a baseball team of all free Cubans.”
Given the call from the FCB, only for players who met some “requirements,” Arocha considered that this was precisely because “there is no freedom.”
2024-05-29 14:09:07
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