New York ? Baseball owners likely will postpone any effort to institute a worldwide draft until their next labor contract with players begins in 2012.

Commissioner Bud Selig said interest in a worldwide draft had increased among management, but Rob Manfred, his executive vice president for labor relations, indicated owners probably wouldn’t push for the players’ association to reopen the collective bargaining agreement over the issue. The current deal runs through the 2011 season.

“We’re not near making any decision on that,” Manfred said Tuesday. “I think the most likely course of events is that it would be handled in the next round of bargaining. The most likely course of events is we would handle it in 2011.”

Selig spoke for 45 minutes to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America prior to the All-Star game, touching on the investigation into possible skimming of signing bonuses in the Dominican Republic, a probe into gambling among scouts, the lack of offers to Barry Bonds, instant replay, maple bats, the slowing economy, baseball’s efforts to rejoin the Olympics, poor television ratings for the Washington Nationals and the prospect of new ballparks for the Florida Marlins, Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays.

He offered no details on the FBI and baseball probe into Dominican signing bonuses other than to say “we understand exactly what’s going on and we’ll do what we have to do to clean it up.” As for the probe into betting by scouts, he said “there certainly is no evidence that it’s widespread.”