Great Britain baseball received the exciting news on Wednesday that the senior national team has been invited to qualify for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
The first two WBC tournaments, the premier international event endorsed by Major League Baseball, have been a big success. Rumours were already circling during the last tournament in 2009 that the number of entrants for the next event would be increased from the previous sixteen.Â
As expected, that expansion has come in the form of an additional qualification round and Great Britain are one of twelve new teams to have been invited to be part of it.
The qualification round will involve sixteen teams in all, the twelve newcomers and the four teams that failed to win a game in the 2009 WBC (Canada, Chinese Taipei, Panama and South Africa). The teams will be split into four groups of four, with each qualifying group likely taking the structure of a double-elimination event.Â
The qualification round will take place in the latter part of 2012 and further details (the venues and which teams will be grouped together) are expected to be announced at the end of this year.
You can read the article on MLB.com here, and the British Baseball Federation website has an interesting news article including quotes from MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Michael Weiner.
We’ll have more reaction to the news over the coming week.
2 comments
Congratulations to baseball in Great Britain and to all the people in the grassroots who work hard to promote the game.
This really is a joke.
Chances of GB coming out of the group is about 1% and if they did then the WBC would add alot of MLB players who decide that they want to be English. Only positive is if MLB supply alot of euipment.