The Nippon Professional Baseball Players Association (NPBPA) announced that players under contract with clubs participating in the japanese Big Leagues will be part of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. NPBA’s spokesman Takahiro Arai broke the news during a press conference at Koshien stadium.
During a meeting in mid July, players had voted to sit out of the tournament, if no changes in revenue sharing were made
NPB Officials met with MLB and the World Baseball Classic Inc in August in New York and reached a new agreement onsponsorship rights. From now on, NPB will have a special task force to handle those rights.
Japan has won the first two editions of the World Baseball Classic, defeating Cuba (2006) and Korea (2009) in the gold medal game.
The World Baseball Classic will see 16 teams participate in the main tournament. The top 12 of the 2009 Classic are already qualified, Four more teams will come out of the Qualifiers. The first two tournaments will be played later in September in Regensburg (Germany) and Jupiter (Florida, USA).
