The IBAF decided yesterday that the World Baseball Classic (WBC), which was won by the Japanese national team both times it was held, will be the organization’s main event. The third WBC tournament is scheduled for early 2013, and the Japanese Players Association has yet to sign off on whether or not it will agree to defend its back-to-back titles. The holdup on the decision is due to a disagreement about revenue sharing.

At any rate, if the JBPA decides to take part (which it probably will), and once again wins the whole thing, then they’ll certainly rise from their current spot of fourth in the world rankings.

Here are the top 30 of the 76 nations currently ranked by the IBAF:

2011 Ranking	Country	Federation	Points	2010 Ranking
1	Cuba	COPABE	956.02	1
2	USA	COPABE	893.25	2
3	South Korea	BFA	766.70	3
4	Japan	BFA	656.42	4
5	Netherlands	CEB	483.51	6
6	Canada	COPABE	458.83	8
7	Taiwan (Chinese Taipei)	BFA	444.04	5
8	Venezuela	COPABE	393.63	7
9	Puerto Rico	COPABE	249.73	11
10	Mexico	COPABE	249.23	9
11	Australia	BCO	225.97	10
12	Dominican Republic	COPABE	204.20	13
13	Italy	CEB	177.94	12
14	Nicaragua	COPABE	127.56	14
15	Panama	COPABE	90.24	16
16	China	BFA	83.84	15
17	Germany	CEB	51.24	19
18	Spain	CEB	49.01	17
19	Netherlands Antilles	COPABE	48.98	22
20	Czech Republic	CEB	45.46	20
21	Pakistan	BFA	43.00	25
22	Thailand	BFA	38.38	18
23	Great Britain	CEB	33.32	21
24	Argentina	COPABE	32.00	32
25	Croatia	CEB	29.07	30
26	Colombia	COPABE	28.75	28
27	Indonesia	BFA	26.50	31
28	Philippines	BFA	22.83	23
29	Greece	CEB	21.50	33
30	Hong Kong	BFA	20.25	26

COPABE = Confederación Panamericana de Béisbol
BFA = Baseball Federation of Asia
CEB = Confederation of European Baseball
BCO = Baseball Confederation of Oceania

Click here for the rankings for all 76 teams.

1. Cuba*
2. USA*
3. Korea*
4. Japan*
5. Chinese Taipei*
6. The Netherlands*
7. Canada*
8. Mexico*
9. Panama*
10. Australia*
11. Puerto Rico*
12. Nicaragua
13. Italy*
14. China*
15. Venezuela*
16. Spain
17. Dominican Republic*
18. Brazil
19. Germany
20. South Africa*
21. Czech Republic
22. Phillippines
23. Great Britain
24. Colombia
25. Sweden
26. Thailand
27. France
28. Netherlands Antilles
29. Nigeria
30. Russia
31. Ghana
32. Ukraine
33. Virgin Islands
34. Croatia
35. Aruba
36. Zimbabwe
37. Greece
38. Lesotho
39. Austria
40. Lithuania
40. Bahamas
42. Guatemala
43. Cameroon
44. Hong Kong
44. Pakistan

*Boldface and asterisks indicate 2009 WBC participants.

There are a few surprises here. As massive as it is, India has no team that qualifies for an IBAF ranking? China is ranked above Venezuela?

The WBC is likely to shake these rankings up a bit (if it counts as an IBAF event – I’m not sure about that), especially as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela are going to be stocked with Major League talent unavailable to them for other events.