Sportblog | The Guardian — Fidel Castro RSS

Dec 02, 2016

Even in the tough times Fidel Castro’s Cuba placed great value on sport | Richard Williams

Long before the Buena Vista Social Club beguiled audiences around the world, revolutionary Cuba’s sporting heroes enjoyed global renownOn a warm evening in a Barcelona suburb 24 years ago, the air thick and heavy, the light-grey and gold, Cuba and the USA met in a baseball game that was as much a contest of ideologies as an Olympic semi-final. As the two teams lined up to shake hands before the semi-final, each Cuban presented his opponent with a commemorative pennant. The Americans had come empty-handed.The USA team consisted of college boys, some of them on the brink of Major League-careers. The Cubans were veterans of their domestic league, unbeaten in almost 70 internationals. After a scoreless first hour, it was...

Nov 29, 2016

Fidel Castro, cricket, and a crackpot Foreign Office plan for Cuba | The Spin

The revolutionary leader’s decision to join a scratch game of cricket in Barbados in 1998 led to one of the more curious British Foreign Office schemes: to take the game to CubaOnce upon a time, they say, Fidel Castro played a game of cricket. It was in 1998, when Castro, then 71, was taking a short tour of Barbados. He and the prime minister of Barbados, Owen Arthur, were travelling from Bridgetown up to Paynes Bay on the west coast, where they were due to unveil a memorial to the men and women who died in the bombing of Air Cubana flight 455 22 years earlier. On the way they passed a cricket match. And, as the one eyewitness account...