World Baseball Classic qualifiers: Foreign coach to train baseball team

Chinese Taipei agree to provide batting expertise ahead of September event

KARACHI: The Pakistan men’s baseball team has been handed a huge boost ahead of the 2017 World Baseball Classic qualification rounds as Chinese Taipei have agreed to provide a batting coach two months before their qualifier against Brazil, announced Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) Secretary Syed Khawar Shah.

Pakistan have been pitted in Qualifier 4 alongside Brazil, Israel and Great Britain and will face Brazil in the preliminary round on September 22. The top team from the Qualifier will get to play the World Baseball Classic in February next year.

Shah, who also serves as the executive director of the West Asia Baseball Development, revealed that the PFB enjoys great relations with Chinese Taipei’s board, Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA), and requested them to offer their assistance, to which they obliged.



For now, no name has been revealed as Shah intends to consult with the CTBA before making any formal announcement. “The coach will be named after talks with the CTBA. I want to bring in a coach who can interact with the players easily,” said Shah. “He will be arriving here in the beginning of August.”

Meanwhile, head coach Musadiq Hanif is confident that the qualifiers will open up more avenues for the players.



“Pakistan will be participating in an extremely prestigious tournament and a good performance at this competition can open doors for the pitchers and batsmen in the US League,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2016.

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