BEIJING, Aug 23: IOC president Jacques Rogge took in some of the final-day action before baseball is dropped from the Olympic programme on Saturday and hinted the sport would not be back until Major League players were allowed to take part.

“We have (Roger) Federer, (Rafael) Nadal in tennis, LeBron James in basketball,” Rogge told MLB.com. “We have the best cyclists. Ronaldinho is here in football.

“We want these guys at the Games.

“We’re not saying it should be an entire Major League team, but we want the top athletes here at the Olympics.”

Rogge made a brief appearance at Wukesong Field to watch the U.S. beat Japan 8-4 in the bronze medal game and indicated the International Olympic Committee was prepared to play hardball with MLB over the problematic issue of major leaguers in the Olympics.

MLB has flatly rejected any proposal linked to the league shutting down for the Games while the IOC has made it clear it wants the world’s best on the Olympic diamond if the sport is to have any chance of returning to the line-up.

Baseball and softball were both chopped from the Olympic programme in 2005 and will not be played at the 2012 London Summer Games.

But both will be considered for reinstatement, along with five other Olympic hopefuls (golf, squash, rugby, karate and rollersports) for a return to the Olympic roster in 2016.

The IBAF (International Baseball Federation) along with MLB maintain they are eager to remain part of the Olympics and say they are working hard to end the stalemate.

IBAF President Harvey Schiller said earlier in the week he believed major league players would appear in the Olympics in 2016 if the sport is reinstated.

Several proposals have been floated, including a plan to move and extend the MLB all-star break and replace it with a compact Olympic tournament.—Reuters