Baseball's exclusion from the Olympic program after Beijing could make the game extinct in Russia just as it was starting to flourish.

"I really fear that baseball will soon die as a sport in this country," Russian baseball federation vice-president Dmitry Kiselev said.

"In Russia, most of the money is spent on sports that are part of the Olympic program, others get very little, and since we didn't qualify for Beijing in baseball or softball the funding will be cut drastically," he said.