Cuban top sports official visits Japan, meets with Cuban baseball players

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 10 (acn) PhD. Antonio Becali, president of the Cuban Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER by its Spanish acronym), described as "academic activity" the meeting held in Tokyo with Cuban baseball players hired by clubs of the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NPB).

"It was an excellent exchange on the experiences accumulated in Cuba and Japan," said the official, who highlighted the enriching character of the dialogue with OF Alfredo Despaigne, LHP Livan Moinelo, IF Yurisbel Gracial, RHP Raidel Martinez, C Ariel Martinez and coach Omar Linares.
The ballplayers of the Caribbean island thanked for the contact that marked Becali´s first working day in the Japanese capital, which was also attended by the Cuban ambassador Carlos Miguel Pereira.
Becali was accompanied by Omar Venegas and Martha Lidia Ruiz, INDER vice president and director of International Relations, respectively, on a day in which he also met with Masatake Yamanaka, vice-president of the Japanese Baseball Federation.
They both celebrated the return of baseball to the Olympic program on the occasion of the Tokyo 2020 event, and evaluated new ways of cooperation, including athletes´ training.
The Caribbean delegation was also received by the NPB commissioner, Atsushi Saito, with whom the hiring of Cuban baseball players in the Asian country was addressed.
"Both sides agreed to continue strengthening working relations," Becali said.
The Cuban official praised the contribution of the NPB to the formation and development of Cuban players and the willingness of its executives and franchises to expand and consolidate such links.
Becali fulfills a broad agenda that previously left other positive chapters in Mongolia and Vietnam.