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Friday, 17th December 2010
In Sports,

US baseball official criticises Japanese players

A leading US baseball figure has raised concerns about Japanese players demanding large amounts to play in a key competition.

Jim Small, the managing director of the US Major League Baseball Classic, has criticised the players for requesting more money to appear at the World Baseball Classic in 2013.

"The issue is, they feel they should be compensated differently than right now. We obviously disagree," Mr Small told the Kyodo news agency.

He added that the high wage demands also reduced the amount of money that was available to promote the sport in other countries.

"Our goal is for most of the money in the tournament to go back to into building baseball," explained the director.

Japan are the current champions of the event after winning the title in 2009. They also won the first ever World Baseball Classic in 2006.

Written by Kimberly Homer.