For the first time, Cuba was left out of the top ten countries in the world ranking issued by the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC), which was updated this Monday.
The list, which includes a global range of 84 countries and territories, is announced one month before the start of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
"No. 11 Cuba fell out of the top 10 for the first time since the World Baseball Rankings were launched in 2009," the WBSC said in itswebsite.
Starting in 2012, it has gradually fallen from first place to third in 2014, then to fifth in 2016 and then to eighth place in 2019.
"Cuba falls 4 positions and is in 11th place in the @WBSC Ranking released today, the worst position since this classification was established," lamented the station.Radio Bayamo on your Facebook wall.
Also in the weeklyHavana Tribune, reporter Boris Luis Cabrera analyzed the causes of this "free fall" of the Cuban national sport, which for the first time did not qualify for the Olympics.
"Since these lists began to be published, Cuba was at the top among all nations for its results in all baseball categories and its players walked with pride on all fields of this world," he recalled.
Cabrera explained that the WBSC world ranking measures the results of national teams from children's to professional categories in international competitions for four years.
"Falling to 11th place on that list calls for urgent reflection, a rethinking of the methods and strategies that currently govern baseball in our country and, above all, a radical change in the way this sport is directed and organized. throughout the entire Island," he demanded.
The Cuban baseball team is now in Willemstad, Curacao, where the III Caribbean Cup is taking place, which was dedicated to Higinio Vélez, president of the Cuban federation of the discipline who died of coronavirus last May.
The most recent international competition of the national team was the Pre-Olympic Baseball Tournament, which was held in Miami, and in which the Cubans did not advance from the first phase andThey were left without options to fight for a ticket to the Olympics.
In March 2020,Cuba rose to seventh place in the WBSC ranking, after his performance in the U-23 World Cup Qualifier earned him several points and made him rise from eighth place, where he had been on the list in January of that year.
In that month's update theIsla fell three places – from fifth to eight –, after a 2019 with the worst results in international events in the history of this sport.
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