Cuban baseball players allowed to play overseas

Ending a 50-year-old ban, Cuba finally allowed its baseball players to play in foreign professional clubs, the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Higinio Velez said.

"Allowing to play in foreign clubs is now a policy of the federation, fulfilling an old wish of our players and people, as a way to put the national baseball on the map," Velez was quoted as saying by Xinhua Thursday.

He explained that the permits to play abroad could be for periods not affecting the Cuban National Series and would be granted "especially to the most excellent players, so they can go and fulfill their international commitments and can still return to represent their local teams."

Recently, the island's authorities allowed the outstanding players Michel Enrique, Alfredo Despaigne and Yordanis Samon to play in the club Pirates of Campeche of the Mexican Professional League.