Photo: Yuhki Ohboshi
The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) officially announced this Thursday the two groups for the Premier 12. The 12 participants were classified based on the WBSC World Ranking system.
World No. 2 Mexico, United States (No. 3), Venezuela (No. 6), Netherlands (No. 7), Panama (No. 10) and Puerto Rico (No. 12) will compete in Group A from November 10 to 14 at the Estadio Panamericano Charros de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Jalisco and the Estadio Santa Teresita in Tepic Nayarit, Mexico.
The leader of the Ranking (Japan), Korea (No. 4), Chinese Taipei (No. 5), Cuba (No. 8), Dominican Republic (No. 9) and Australia (No. 11) will play in Group B . This Group B will open play on November 13 with Japan playing Australia at the Vantelin Dome Nagoya, plus games will also be held at the Taipei Dome and Tianmu Stadium in Taipei City which will host the 12 remaining games.
After round-robin play, the top two finishers from each group will compete in the Super Round. The first and second place teams from the Super Round will compete in the Premier12 Championship game, while the third and fourth place finishers will play for a bronze medal.
🌏⚔️ The Global Baseball Battle is set!
🔝⚾ Groups announced for @Premier12 2024 presented by RAXUS.
🔗 Check out the details here: https://t.co/eZur5wJNIc #Premier12 pic.twitter.com/LUeyoln6WD
— WBSC ⚾🥎 (@WBSC) April 18, 2024
The Tokyo Dome will host the Super Round (November 21-23). The medal games are scheduled for November 24. In the inaugural Premier 12 (2015) Korea beat the USA to win the title. Japan defeated Mexico and finished third that year. The Premier 12 attracted more than 300,000 fans over 32 games in the second and most recent edition in 2019, won by Japan.
Humberto Guevara, technical head of the National Baseball Commission, was recently invited to the Cubavisión International program ‘Bola Viva’ and offered some updates regarding the Cuba team ahead of the Premier 12. Guevara confirmed what we commented a few months ago in our media, since the players in the MLB System who are not on the Roster of 40 of the Major League teams are eligible to be with the Cuban team.
“We are organizing to see if we can begin preparation in Cuba in the first week of September until October 15. After that date we want to travel to Asia, preferably Korea or Chinese Taipei, to overcome the jet lag in time and also do some matches with teams from both Asian countries.”
“We are in a complicated group, that of Asia, with the three powers of that continent (Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei), Australia and the Dominican Republic. Athletes who are in the Major League circuits who are not within 40 are eligible, something that the MLB does not allow,” concluded Humberto Guevara.