Cuba will allow its baseball players to play in foreign professional clubs, ending a 50-year-old ban, the president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, Higinio Velez, said on Thursday.

"Allowing to play in foreign clubs is now a policy of the federation, fulfilling an old wish of our players and people, as a way to put the national baseball on the map," Velez said.

He explained that the permits to play abroad could be for periods not affecting the Cuban National Series and would be granted "especially to the most excellent players, for they can go and fulfill their international commitments and still can return to represent their local teams."

Recently, the island's authorities allowed the outstanding players Michel Enrique, Alfredo Despaigne and Yordanis Samon to play in the club Pirates of Campeche of the Mexican Professional League.

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