The United States will allow Cuban Major League Baseball players to represent their country in the World Baseball Classic next year.
The decision announced Saturday in a press release by the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) could be a big step towards transforming the Cuban national team into a shock team on the international scene.
Major League Baseball confirmed on Monday that the United States has granted the license to FCB. This allows MLB stars such as Jose Abreu, Yordan Alvarez, Randy Arozarena, Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert to play for Cuba at the WBC in March if they decide to accept a possible invite.
It is up to the national governing body of each country to choose the players for its WBC team. Final 30-man rosters are due Feb. 7 for the WBC, which begins March 8 with Cuba against the Netherlands in Taiwan.
While football is the sport of choice for much of Latin America, baseball dominates in Cuba. The island has become world famous for its baseball skills.
But in recent years, hundreds of these players have left Cuba to play professionally elsewhere. Many of them, in particular, became American residents and stars of major league teams in the United States.
The defections are largely due to a not-so-uncommon geopolitical feud between the two sea neighbors, leaving Cuban players stuck in the middle.
Cuban athletes who compete on the island cannot be paid by the communist government, which banned professional sports after the Cuban revolution 60 years ago.
Due to long-standing US sanctions, it’s virtually impossible for Cubans to play professionally on a US team without defecting. At the same time, Cuba has never allowed defected Cuban players to appear on their national teams’ rosters.
The defections have impacted Cuba’s performance in international baseball competitions. For example, the Cuban baseball team failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after winning medals in the sport for years.
In November, Cuba changed tack and invited several top defected players to represent the country in the World Baseball Classic, a tournament that pits some of the sport’s best players in Japan against Taiwan and the United States.
Weeks later, Cuban officials accused the Biden administration of preventing those players from representing Cuba.
In a statement on Saturday, FCB President Juan Reinaldo Perez Pardo called the clearance a “positive step” and said the Cuban federation should have more information on the team’s roster at the WBC when she will have more details on the license granted by the United States.
At the same time, Perez Pardo also criticized the United States, tweeting on Saturday that “it is arbitrary and discriminatory that a permit from the government of this country (the United States) is required to participate” in the WBC.
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AP Baseball reporter Mike Fitzpatrick in New York contributed to this report.
