Eight-year-old Kevin Kindelan plays as a shortstop with his friend, first baseman Leoni Venego, on the junior league baseball team from Central Havana.

Both dream of great fame.

Kevin would like to play for Cuba's national baseball team.

Leoni, on the other hand, has bigger goals.

"I want to play in the major leagues and like Yuli Gurriel," says the seven-year-old, alluding to the Cuban star of the American baseball team, the Houston Astros.

Baseball is becoming increasingly popular.

Which is not least due to Fidel Castro's love for this sport.

However, the country continues to be economically shaken and not least due to the corona pandemic, the economy shrank by 11 percent in 2020. People queue up to get food, medicine and fuel.

Since last October, more than 157,000 Cubans have left the country for the United States.

Among them were many baseball players.

In the past, the Cuban baseball team won gold medals at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​1996 in Atlanta and again in 2004 in Athens.

"Over the past six years, baseball churn has tripled compared to the 10 years between 2000 and 2010," said Francis Romero, a Cuban baseball expert and author who now lives in Florida.

"No baseball league can survive something like this."

Many young players no longer live the communist-motivated love for their country, which may have led to the Olympic victories.

Today, young people want to leave the country at the age of 16 or 17.

On the Central Havana field, some of the young players practice their first swings, practice catching and high fives.

But even here the economic situation in the country does not stop.

Sideline coach Orakly Chirino says: “We don't even have decent gloves, racquets or shoes.

Let alone balls to play with.

If we need something, it's far too expensive.” This lack of material also means that many young Cubans turn to other, less material-intensive sports such as soccer.

"This is how we lose our best ball players before they even play in a larger national team," says Orakly Chirino.

That was the experience of old coach Nicolar Reyes, who saw dozens of his players sign contracts outside of Cuba.

But he doesn't see it negatively: "You started with me and are now playing in the (US) major league.

That makes me proud!” He understands the players' need for success.

"But when I played, it wasn't like that.

You would never have betrayed your country.”

Juan Reinaldo Perez is President of the Cuban Baseball Federation.

He still sees plenty of talent that gives him hope for Cuban baseball.

“We are a country with a baseball heritage and it continues to grow.

We are now using the limited opportunities in the country to convince players to stay in Cuba,” says Perez.

However, in May, the Cuban Federation reached an agreement with the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).

This states that players from Cuba can conclude contracts in professional leagues without giving up their homeland or nationality.

This deal was supposed to happen in 2018, but was blocked by President Donald Trump.

This deal is of course an even greater motivation for players to leave the country today.