The Cubans will be allowed to participate in the inaugural World Baseball Classic after the U.S. government reversed course Jan. 20 and issued the special license necessary for the communist nation to play in the March 3-20 16-team tournament.

Baseball's first application was denied in mid-December by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, but the commissioner's office and the players' association reapplied Dec. 22 after Cuba said it would donate any profits it receives to Hurricane Katrina victims.

The license was required by 45-year-old American sanctions against Cuba designed to prevent Fidel Castro's government from receiving U.S. currency. At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the initial rejection was based on concerns Cuban spies might accompany the team.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 28, 2006
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