TOKYO, Japan — Samurai Japan leader Hiroki Kokubo announced that he will assemble a “Dream Team” with Japan’s biggest names in baseball to win the inaugural Premier 12™ pro world championship — 8-21 November in Japan and Taiwan — that will award the biggest purse of world ranking points of any international event, in addition to US$ millions in prize money, in order to guarantee Japan remains atop the baseball world.
Last November, Kukubo steered top-ranked Japan past an MLB All-Star Team, highlighted by a no-hitter, to win the best-of-five international Japan All-Star Series, taking the first three games.
A landmark agreement between WBSC and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) was reached in Tokyo last week that will see the semi-finals and finals of the inaugural 2015 Premier 12 be staged at the iconic 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome, WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari and NPB Commissioner Katsuhiko Kumazaki jointly announced.
In response to the recent wave of Premier 12 developments, No. 10 Venezuela appointed former big leaguer Carlos Guillen as general manager this week, with his first global test as head of the Venezuelan delegation to be the Premier 12, El Nacional reports.
The twelve qualified nations for the inaugural Premier 12 in 2015 are (by World Rank): No. 1 Japan, No. 2 USA, No. 3 Cuba, No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 5 Netherlands, No. 6 Dominican Republic, No. 7 Canada, No. 8 South Korea, No. 9 Puerto Rico, No. 10 Venezuela, No. 11 Italy and No. 12. Mexico.
