Major League Baseball "has submitted a proposal to the Treasury Department that outlines a new pathway for baseball players from Cuba to sign directly with big-league teams" in the U.S. If approved, "it could represent a sea change in relations between the two countries and drastically reshape how Cuban players find their way to the major leagues."
For decades, Cubans "have had to play for minuscule wages in their island homeland" or abandon their country to pursue baseball careers in America. Under the proposed plan, "an entity would be created made up of Cuban entrepreneurs and officials" from MLB and its players’ union. A percentage of salaries paid to Cuban players "would go to the new body, which would function like a nonprofit and support youth baseball, education and improving sports facilities in Cuba" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/2).
A NEW LOOK: Cricket Wales member organizations "unanimously agreed to the creation of a new Board of Directors to drive the sport forward."
Cricket Wales "is recognized by Sport Wales and Welsh Government" as the National Governing Body for cricket in Wales and forms part of the England & Wales Cricket Board.
As well as having individuals from within cricket in Wales, the new board "will have independent directors, increased diversity, more business skills and will retain its strong link to Glamorgan."
All the new director roles "will be advertised widely with short-listed candidates interviewed by a nominations panel" (WALES ONLINE, 3/2).
BRIEFLY ...
South Korean prosecutors "have arrested another official" from the Korean Swimming Federation as part of a widening investigation into corruption.
Prosecutors arrested a KSF board member late last month amid allegations that "he took hundreds of thousands of dollars from coaches to influence the selection of national team athletes."
On Wednesday, prosecutors arrested an official from the KSF's Mokpo office in South Jeolla province, southwest Korea, and "seized computer hard drives and documents from the branch office" (REUTERS, 3/2).
V8s "will not be going anywhere anytime soon from the nation's top touring car competition, despite the reference being dropped from its current name, V8 Supercars." V8 Supercars CEO James Warburton on Wednesday "outlined the name change." He said that by Jan. 1, the organization "would be called Supercars, but reassured V8 fans that the engines they have known and loved for generations would not be leaving the category in the foreseeable future." He said, "I can never see a time in the next decade that we will not have V8 engines" (HERALD SUN, 3/2).
The decision to allow British athletes including double Olympic champion Mo Farah to train in Ethiopia "is to be reviewed after it emerged the East African country is bracing for a doping scandal."
Farah "has just returned from a training camp outside the Ethiopian capital Addis Abab selected because of its high altitude, climate and number of elite runners" (London DAILY MAIL, 3/1).
