By Franco Miguel Alvariño
Cuban baseball is hanging by a thread. The disastrous appearances in recent international tournaments demonstrate the precarious state of health of a sports discipline, which is an inseparable part of our idiosyncrasy. At this point there are still many doubts about the immediate future of the national pastime.
With the aim of clarifying several of the questions that swarm among fans and the specialty press, the sports commentator, Evyan War, interviewed the Treasurer of the Cuban Federation, Luis Daniel del Risco, who explained several of the most controversial issues of today.
A few days ago it was announced the stoppage of the training sessions for the provincial preselections that had begun their preparation for the upcoming National Series. Regarding this issue, many were the variants that were handled, but the federative offered the official version of the events in said interview.
“The situation of the National Series 61 is being studied. First, we do not have international events next year that pressure us. Second, the epidemic in the country has been spreading, there are many provinces that continue to present large numbers of cases, and that is why the INDER together with the MINSAP determined that the training of the teams, which had begun, with more than 60 athletes stop, to see how the situation evolves in the coming months ”, declared del Risco.
In the information that circulated there was speculation about the possibility that baseball will not be played in Cuba in 2021. The news impacted the fans, it would be difficult to conceive a year without the voice of Play Ball being heard in Cuban stadiums. Although the official did not offer exact dates, he did introduce the subject and left some clues as to what may happen.
“We will be evaluating when to start the championship. We have as a background the previous season, in which we spent eight months of competition, and after it ended we had to mourn the death of two of our colleagues, because of Covid 19. That is why we will calmly study the different scenarios, in order to propose a start date for SNB 61 that is feasible for everyone, ”the federative reported.
In his words, the also head of refereeing and rules of the domestic championship could not announce an exact date for the start of the tournament. Even minutes later he spoke about how the preparation should work, and he did not even refer to a period of time for the players to start training with their respective teams. Which makes you think of a long time without having baseball in our stadiums.
He talked about the preparation time. “Six weeks should not be, we plan that it will be between eight and ten weeks of training, so that the teams can get to the championship in good shape. We want to keep the 75 games, and then make an elite stage in baseball. We are studying this to prevent athletes from being affected. The only commitment we have is to meet university students in the United States, at the end of June, the beginning of July. “
One of the recurring themes in recent years is about the structure of the National Series. It happens that players and coaches cannot accommodate themselves to a game system. On this topic and the selection of reinforcements, del Risco clarified some ideas that could change the competition again.
“We had the stage with the reinforcements when we played 45 games. That is why we implemented the reinforcements, to generate more games for the players who were left out in the first phase. In addition, we use it as a strategy to raise the roof of our baseball. ” Asserted
“With the 75 games we put in place last year, we realized that it was more emotional for teams to qualify with their own athletes and then discuss the title. The idea is to play all 75 challenges, and then make the quarterfinals of 7-4, the semifinal of 7-4 and the final of 7-4. ” Explained
“Also, we have devised a tournament, in which the maximum limit of games is 50 crashes, that would give us around 120-130 challenges at a high level. We have conceived a competition with six sets, although that is still under analysis. On the other hand, we plan to do it by zones, we could also include the reinforced national champion, and a team of talents, that if insurance must be included, in which players under 25 years of age participate. “
Despite the fact that baseball in the rest of the world evolves at an incredible speed, in Cuba we continue with conservative management and organization methods. The acquisition of players from other provinces continues to be an issue that even generates sanctions, when commercial baseball deals with these issues on a daily basis, and is part of the development of each league. But, it is no secret to anyone that in Cuba the provinces cannot – or should not – offer extra benefits to the players.
“We have to open ourselves, to seek to expand the possibilities of the athletes. This year we took an important step, after the championship ended we offered 15 days for the teams to make all the changes they needed. They were made, and if there is incongruity, the National Baseball Directorate enters to assess it. We also want to hear what the people have to contribute, they have many ideas that are feasible for our tournament, what we cannot do is close down. With this, we will raise the roof of our baseball, that of the athletes, and the results will improve ”, added del Risco.
To close, Luis Daniel del Risco joined the controversy, and clarified everything related to the assignment of the Cuba team director for the next four years. This issue was even criticized by the official press, even more so when the main positions in the leadership of Cuban baseball are not covered.
“In the tour that was made throughout the country, it came out that the director had to be chosen for four years. We are on this path, that the director of the national team has a job with the team for four years, so that he can evaluate the team he is going to lead, “he said.
“I was in favor of the manager leaving the National Series, but I have been studying and I have understood that when we have a group of colleagues observing and thinking about what we need to go to an event, our results will be better.” Counted.
“We have a conjunctural situation, now we can appoint one of the 16 directors of the National Series, as is in the regulations, but if we remove it and we have not given the provinces the resources to develop the basis for that director, no we do nothing, ”he explained.
“We have to study all this, although with the decision to stop training we do not know when we are going to develop the series, how many games it will be, what we have for next year, when we have that I think we can be a little more objective in our decision” , he concluded.