TOKYO – A top US baseball official hit out at Japanese players Thursday for demanding more money to compete in the next World Baseball Classic, the sport's equivalent of the football World Cup.

Jim Small, the managing director of the US Major League Baseball organisation in Japan, said paying Japanese players more to play at the event would mean less money for promoting the sport in new countries.

Japan are defending WBC champions but have yet to commit to the 2013 event.

"The issue is, they feel they should be compensated differently than right now," Small told reporters Thursday, according to Kyodo news agency. "We obviously disagree."

The US Major League Baseball organisation created the WBC to promote the game worldwide by featuring their stars fighting for their countries.

Small said Japanese players needed to understand that the WBC existed for the greater good of the game and not for making money.

"Our goal is for most of the money in the tournament to go back to into building baseball," he said, according to Kyodo.

With baseball out of the Olympics and no money coming from the International Olympic Committee, the WBC is now a vital source of revenue, he said.

"The Japanese players need to understand that every dollar they try to take for themselves is not going to baseball in China, baseball in South Africa, countries that need the development dollars," he said.

Japan won the inaugural event in 2006 and retained the title in 2009, helped by Seattle Mariners star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, but many MLB big names have skipped the tournament as it clashes with pre-season build-up.

Small told Kyodo that he expects Japanese players to eventually come to their senses and try to win the championship for a third consecutive time.

"If we continue to talk to them, if we continue to exchange information and I think eventually they'll understand the compensation they're receiving is fair," he said.

"Based on the amount of contribution to the overall pot, the actual Japanese player is making far more than the US player. The US is still contributing more money to the pot, but the US player is making less than the Japanese player."