Eight professionals, including Seibu Lions star Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kintetsu Buffaloes slugger Norihiro Nakamura, have joined 16 top amateur players in Japan's baseball squad for the Sydney Olympics in September.

After the Yakult Swallows shut the door on catcher Atsuya Furuta last week, national team manager Kozo Otagaki made a last-minute addition of veteran pitcher Masanori Sugiura to round out the 24-man roster announced Monday by both pro and amateur officials.

"I'd like Mr. Sugiura to serve as captain of the team because he has a lot of experience as an Olympic competitor. I don't think we can hold a joint training session between pros and amateurs, but I'll try to make the best possible preparations for Sydney," Otagaki said.

Sugiura, a 32-year-old right-hander with the Nippon Life Insurance corporate club, helped Japan win the bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Games and the silver four years later in Atlanta.

Otagaki said two or three of the seven amateur pitchers will likely to join Matsuzaka and Tomohiro Kuroki of the Lotte Marines in the starting rotation in the eight-nation tournament in Sydney.

Masato Kawano of the Hiroshima Carp, the other professional pitcher on the roster, is expected to be used as a closer. The batting order will be built around such professionals as Nakamura, who leads the Pacific League with 25 homers and 73 RBIs, Nobuhiko Matsunaka of the Daiei Hawks, Yukio Tanaka of the Nippon Ham Fighters and So Taguchi of the Orix BlueWave. "We still need to research our opponents. Of course we have hopes, but I expect tough competition," Otagaki said.

The baseball event in Sydney, where professionals will be allowed to take part in the Olympics for the first time, features host Australia, two-time gold medalist Cuba, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, South Africa and the United States.

Japan will open its campaign against the U.S. on Sept. 17, the opening day of the round-robin first round, from which the top four countries will advance to the semifinals.

The Olympic Team:

Manager -- Kozo Otagaki (Toshiba)

Pitchers -- Daisuke Matsuzaka* (Seibu Lions), Tomohiro Kuroki* (Lotte Marines), Masato Kawano* (Hiroshima Carp), Masanori Sugiura (Nippon Life Insurance), Toshiya Sugiuchi (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki), Shunsuke Watanabe (Nippon Steel Kimitsu), Yoshikazu Doi (Nippon Life Insurance), Akichika Yamada (Ritsumeikan University), Yuji Yoshimi (Tohoku Fukushi University), Masanori Ishikawa (Aoyama Gakuin University)

Catchers -- Fumihiro Suzuki* (Chunichi Dragons), Kosuke Noda (Nippon Steel Kimitsu), Shinnosuke Abe (Chuo University)

Infielders -- Norihiro Nakamura* (Kintetsu Buffaloes), Nobuhiko Matsunaka* (Daiei Hawks), Yukio Tanaka* (Nippon Ham Fighters), Yoshinori Okihara (NTT East), Jun Heima (Toshiba), Osamu Nogami (Nippon Life Insurance)

Outfielders -- So Taguchi* (Orix BlueWave), Yoshihiko Kajiyama (Mitsubishi Motors Kawasaki), Tomohiro Iizuka (NTT East), Norihiro Akahoshi (JR East), Jun Hirose (Hosei University)

(* denotes professional player)