The WBSC Premier12 (also "Premier 12") is the flagship international baseball tournament organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the twelve best-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held in Taiwan and Japan in November 2015.
Video WBSC Premier12
Overview
From 1938 to 2011, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), then the governing body of baseball, considered the Baseball World Cup to be the sport's major world championship. Following the 2011 version of the event, the IBAF chose to discontinue the tournament in favor of the World Baseball Classic.
In 2005 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that baseball and softball would be removed from the Summer Olympics beginning in 2012. Thereafter, the IOC also officially reclassified baseball and softball as two different disciplines of the same sport. In 2013, the IBAF merged with the International Softball Federation to create the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).
On 27 November 2014, the WBSC announced the creation of the Premier12 tournament, calling it "the new flagship pro baseball world championship," which would be held every four years. It was viewed as a spiritual successor to the Baseball World Cup and an attempt to boost baseball's bid for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The WBSC proposed that, if baseball does return to the Olympics for 2020, that the 2019 WBSC Premier12 be used as a qualifying tournament.
Maps WBSC Premier12
Participants
The field of the tournament consists of the twelve best national teams in the world according to the most recent WBSC World Rankings. The following twelve national teams has been chosen to participate in the inaugural 2015 WBSC Premier12, based on the rankings released on 22 November 2014.
Results
See also
- Baseball awards § World
References
External links
- IBAF Congress approves new Format of International Tournaments Official IBAF Website
- 'Premier12' Elite Baseball World Championship to be Launched in 2015 Official IBAF Website
- Mundial de BĂ©isbol Premier 12 Resultado de los juegos y estadĂsticas.
Source of article : Wikipedia