Alfredo Despaigne received Cuban flag from the president of Inder, Osvaldo Vento. 

Havana, Oct 15 (ACN) The Cuban national baseball team that will take part in the Premier 12 tournament, to be held from November 9 to 24, received the Cuban flag today at the Latin American Stadium in Havana.

The captain of the squad, Alfredo Despaigne, received the national ensign given by the president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder), Osvaldo Vento, in a ceremony where the members of the Baseball5 team that was proclaimed two-time world champion last Saturday in the world event held in Hong Kong, China, were also honored.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, the Antillean team, led by Armando Johnson, will leave for South Korea with the aim of playing several preparation games with teams from that Asian country and adapting to the time change less than a month before the start of the tournament.

Cuba was placed in Group B, which will start on the 13th in Taipei City, where the teams of the Dominican Republic, Australia, the reigning champion Japan and the local Taiwanese will compete for one of the two tickets to the super round.

Four days earlier, in Mexico, action will begin in section A, where, in addition to the Mexican hosts, the United States, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands will compete.

In the first edition of this tournament, attended by the 12 top-ranked nations in the world, according to the World Baseball and Softball Confederation, the largest Caribbean island ranked sixth and was relegated to tenth place in the last version of 2019.

The goal set by its management team is to equal or surpass the performance of the team in the V World Classic, where they finished a meritorious fourth place.