ISLAMABAD - Federation Baseball Pakistan (FBP) president Syed Khawar Shah has said that the national baseball team has earned the right of participating in the 27th Asian Baseball Championship starting from September 16 at Chinese Taipei.
Pakistan team will play along with Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea, China, Indonesia teams. Talking to The Nation, Khawar said: “The FBP had already started the first phase of national training camp from July 1 at Multan while the second phase started on July 25 at Sports Complex UCP Lahore. Now the third and last phase is under progress at Punjab Stadium Lahore under supervision of Japanese baseball coach Toma Irokawa.”
The FBP has been paying the expenses of training camp as well as Japanese coach with the help of Sports Board Punjab (SBP), he said and added the federation would get following benefits from participating in the 27th Asian Baseball Championship. “First of all, ranking of Pakistan will be upgraded, as the country is currently at No 6 in Asia and secondly, the country will qualify for the World Baseball Classic Championship 2016.”
Pakistan other countries of South Asia including Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka are struggling for the inclusion of baseball in South Asian Games 2016 in India. Pakistan will be favourite to lift gold, if baseball is included in SAF Games,” he added.
“It is my request to Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) Director General Dr Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera to keeping in mind the FBP’s unmatched work and its team's chance of doing well in SAF Games. The PSB should provide special grant to help the federation so that we may focus on participating in the Asian Baseball Championship,” Khawar concluded.