Professional sport returns to Cuba for the first time in more than 50 years today when the first pitch is thrown in the communist island’s national baseball league, part of a government bid to halt the flow of sporting defectors overseas.
In a policy shift announced in September, Cuba said it would relax its strict rules forbidding professional sport from January next year in an effort to “perfect sports, generate sources of income, and encourage quality.”
The country’s popular baseball league will be the first to benefit from the move, however, as the 2013-2014 season gets under way this weekend. For decades, Cuba thumbed its nose at international pro sports, paying hardworking and fabled athletes close to nothing for the honor of representing their proud nation.
The new “policy of retribution” allows Cuban athletes to keep 100 percent of prize money from overseas sporting tournaments.
Previously athletes were only allowed to pocket 15 percent of their earnings, with 85 percent going to the state.
Legendary Cuban high-jumper Javier Sotomayor has welcomed the change in the regulations saying they would serve as an “incentive for athletes, giving them greater motivation, pushing them to higher performances.”
For years, a succession of gifted Cuban athletes shunned the possibility of untold riches overseas by electing instead to become national icons in their homeland.
It was an attitude perhaps most famously summed up by legendary amateur heavyweight boxer Teofilo Stevenson, winner of three Olympic gold medals between 1972 and 1980.
Boxing promoters in the US dreamed of luring Stevenson to their shores, where a Cold War-era bout with Muhammad Ali would have been among the most lucrative fights of all time.
However, Stevenson, who died aged 60 last year, snubbed all attempts to persuade him to defect.
“No, I will not leave my country for US$1 million or for much more than that,” Stevenson told Sports Illustrated in 1974. “What is US$1 million against 8 million Cubans who love me?”
Yet the hardships faced by many Cuban athletes, and the steady flow of defectors overseas, persuaded Havana’s rulers to rethink the decades-old resistance to professional sport.
Under the new policy for example, Cuba’s Greco-Roman wrestling hero Mijain Lopez, a gold medalist at the 2008 and last year’s Olympics, or baseball star Yulieski Gourriel, widely regarded as the best player in Cuba, will now earn more than US$800 a month. The sums are paltry compared to the millions available overseas, but they represent more than 40 times the monthly wage of the average Cuban worker.
For some Cuban athletes, however, the changes are too little, too late. Slugger Jose Abreu this week inked US$68 million contract with Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox after nine seasons with Cienfuegos in Cuba’s top league.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS