Cuba suffered the loss of a seventh player in the FIFA U-23 World Cup in Mexico, when the bowler defected Yinel Zias, Increasing the negative record in the escape history of Cuban baseball players in a tournament abroad.
“Despite having seven fewer players, today (this Tuesday) Cuba defeated with authority Dominican Republic (6 x 2) And go to the super round” Mundial Sub 23said the digital newspaper Jet of the Cuban Institute of Sports (INDER).
Jet confirmed that “seven” out of 24 players Those who traveled to Mexico chose to “abandon their comrades in the middle of the fair, something which, without giving it any political or ideological nuance, should be classified as sporting betrayal.”
Harroub Zias, 23, joins fellow bowlers Luis Danes Morales, Hubert Megias and Daryl Fernandez, receiver Luddell Rodriguez and backstops Reinaldo Lazaga and Desmane Palacios.
This is the first massive leak in the past two decades and the largest since 1996
Although Cuban players have escaped frequently in recent years on trips abroad, this is the first huge trip in the last two decades and the largest since 1996, when five players from Industriales left the team in the Champions League, as well as in Mexico.
On Twitter, the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) blamed the United States for the growing wave of leaks, which it saw as “concrete expressions” of scrapping the agreement signed with the major leagues in December 2018.
This agreement, which was blocked four months later by Donald Trump’s government, would allow Cuban baseball players to play in the MLB without having to leave their country.
“These dropouts are motivated by the lack of a legal, logical, and natural path for our players to pursue the goal of success in Major League Baseball,” Jett noted.
After migrating through various routes, dozens of Cuban players have starred for years at the Big Top.
Among the most famous of these are Orlando “Duque” Hernandez, Jose Contreras, Kendres Morales, all outside of the Big Top, and currently others such as Jose Abreu, Aroldes Chapman, Joelsky Juriel, Jose Adulis Garcia and Luis Robert.
