Cuban basketball opened doors that baseball keeps closed

By Yasel Porto

While other sports on the Island have opened certain doors to independently contracted players in international leagues, several of whom have long emigrated, baseball remains very slow for the needs of its national team and its domestic championship.

Cuban basketball has taken very important steps forward, which, although they do not solve the basic problems of this discipline, at least contribute to giving a slightly better image and above all, to begin to act in accordance with the times and thus banish grudges and whims that all they do is harm.

The Superior League of the burst sport has not only made it clear that the players who are hired on their own in certain circuits of the planet will be able to be present in the contest as soon as in this same edition, according to the publication of the colleague Luis Alberto Izquierdo Valdés.

But in dialogue with this professional, whom I greatly admire for being one of the most respected specialists in sports such as volleyball and basketball, he confirmed that there will also be news in the next call for the national team.

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At the moment the names of Sigfredo Casero Jr. and Raúl de la Cruz appear. The first is the son of one of the defenders that made up the epic Capitalinos squad that reigned in most of the first editions of the LSB, performing in recent times within the Belgian league. The other is a young man who is involved in a fight in Italy and should arrive in Cuba around February 20.

To these two should be added the experienced Yorman Polas, who at the moment has been with the primary objective in his provincial team of Camagüey.

Of course, in these and in the rest of the cases of players interested in joining the LSB and the Cuban team in the future, they have to take advantage of the much-questioned repatriation process. In that there is a similarity with respect to baseball and each of the disciplines under INDER’s mantle, which in the case of Cuba are all of them. That and also in that the one who has left the delegation is not contemplated even if he recovers the residence.

Although baseball timidly announced that the players will be able to contract independently and play the National Series, it is still part of a theory that was already experienced last year with the Pre-Olympic. While it was publicly reported that anyone who wanted to join the group could do so if the doors were open, there were several obstacles and justifications regarding those interested.

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Basketball is one of the sports that have overcome taboos and prejudices that only hinder development. Very famous was the case of the “non-federated” Cuban handball players who undoubtedly “broke the ice” when it came to representing Cuba with a squad full of emigrant players. It has also happened with volleyball with Roberlandy Simón as the most notable example.

However, there are disciplines such as athletics that continue to refuse to allow exponents residing abroad to participate with Cuba.

Cuban baseball needs to implement similar decisions and others that favor the future scenario much more. One year from the 2023 World Classic, the existing reality envisions a path even worse than the route in the last competition, because now not even the most generous group can improve the forecast. It is that in essence, our problems are getting more serious while our rivals outperform theirs.