League Structure
Ciego de Ávila Cienfuegos Granma Guantánamo Holguín IndustrialesMetropolitanos Isla de la Juventud La Habana Las Tunas Matanzas Pinar del Río Sancti Spíritus Santiago de Cuba Villa Clara Location of teams in the Cuban National Series
Since 1993, the league has had 16 teams: one representing each province, and two for the city of Havana. Each team is made up of players from the province it represents. In Havana, most of the top tier players take the field for Industriales, traditionally the strongest team in the league. Other typically strong teams include those from Santiago de Cuba, Pinar del Río and Villa Clara.
The 90-game regular season stretches from November until February, and culminates with an eight team tournament to decide the league champion.
Since 2008-2009 championship, the Cuban League has been reorganized - qualification is by zones, and not in groups as it has been the last 15 years.
In the 2011-2012 series, there will be 17 teams, since Havana Province has been split in two new provinces: Artemisa Province and Mayabeque Province. Thus, the Western League will have now 9 teams. The Artemisa team will be nicknamed as "Hunters" (spanish "Cazadores"), and the Mayabeque team as "Hurricanes" (spanish "huracanes").
The Cuban National Series is the beginning of the preparation for all the commitments that the team Cuba has in the summer. The Cuban National Preselection is selected from the Series and Havana is the site for practicing before going to the competition. Sometimes more than one team is selected.
Read more about this topic: Cuban National Series
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