Cuba to Let Its Athletes Play Abroad

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/world/americas/cuba-to-let-its-athletes-play-abroad.html

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MEXICO CITY — In another step toward lifting restrictions on its citizens abroad, Cuba announced Friday that its athletes could sign contracts with foreign professional sports leagues, raising the prospect of a flood of new talent around the world but possibly not much in the United States.

Cuba, a sports-crazed island, has long sought to keep its athletes at home in quasi-amateur leagues, usually prohibiting them from cashing in on multimillion-dollar contracts abroad. Defections, as a result, are common, and this season in the United States the Cuban rookie Yasiel Puig, who defected last year and now plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has been one of the latest sensations.

The rule change follows a general loosening of immigration restrictions, even allowing Cubans critical of the government to travel overseas, and a range of steps toward reviving a flagging, state-based economy by allowing Cubans to earn cash on their own.

But a number of caveats would probably limit a surge of Cuban players to the United States.

For one, players signing big contracts will still be unable to repatriate the money because of a cold-war-era American law prohibiting trade with Cuba. In most cases, the limits amount to a few thousand dollars a year.

And Cuba in its announcement on Friday, in the state newspaper Granma, said players holding foreign contracts would still face commitments to play on the island. For baseball, that could mean playing in the November-to-April National Series, overlapping some with spring training and the opening games of the Major League Baseball season.

Analysts said they believed that the move was devised more to cash in on contracts in Mexico, Japan, South Korea and other countries that have more normal ties with Cuba. A Cuban player who was allowed to play in Mexico this year, Alfredo Despaigne, had to share 20 percent of his salary with the government.

“If what the Cuban government wants is for them to come to the U.S. and make millions and go back to Cuba, that is not going to work,” said Roberto González Echevarría, a Yale University professor and the author of a history of Cuban baseball, “The Pride of Havana,” who is often critical of the government. Granma said players would have to pay taxes to the Cuban government on their earnings, which would pose a conflict with the United States embargo.

In a statement, Major League Baseball said that it lacked details on the change in Cuban policy and that, therefore, “it would be premature for us to speculate what effect it may have.”

“There are no provisions in the major-league rules or bylaws that make it more difficult for Cuban ballplayers to play Major League Baseball,” it added, “but M.L.B. and its clubs have and will continue to act in accordance with the laws and policies of the United States government.”

On Cuba, however, there was a lot of talk that it would expand options for players. Most live on state wages that pay $20 a month (Mr. Puig, by contrast, signed a seven-year contract for $42 million) and often dream of regularly competing against the best around the world instead of in the occasional tournament abroad. Involvement in professional sports is not unprecedented but quite limited, in keeping with the Marxist goal of an egalitarian society. But those principles lately have collided against the need to find new revenue to support the state.

Victor Mesa, the manager of Cuba’s national baseball team, declined to comment. But Sigfredo Barros, a longtime Cuban baseball writer, said that over all the rule change “will have a very big impact, very positive.”

“The rules had to change,” he said. “The writing has been on the wall for a long time. The game has evolved. Practically every country has professional players — it’s an economic imperative.”

“Our players will have a chance to play alongside players of another level, and that will raise their game, both technique and tactics.”

But Mr. Barros doubted that it would end the lure of defecting to the United States, which particularly in baseball pays top dollar. “If I were a Cuban player and I had the option of earning a good salary overseas and then coming back and playing here, that’s what I would do,” he said. “But others may think differently.”

<NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Victoria Burnett contributed reporting from Mexico City, and Ben Strauss from Chicago.