Free flow of players 'years away'

There will be no immediate flow of top Cuban players into Major League Baseball despite the major US policy shift toward the island, experts on baseball in Cuba said on Wednesday.

Any move to let Cuban players leave their country freely will not happen for at least several years, said author Pete Bjarkman, who has written extensively about Cuban baseball.

"I don't think it will have any real visible immediate impact," Bjarkman said of the policy change. "Cuba wants to maintain its strong baseball at home. It's got the only strong domestic league outside of Japan and MLB in the US."