Pakistan to play Malaysia in women’s baseball

Coach Nadeem believes three-match series will help young players gain exposure

KARACHI:

Pakistani women’s baseball team will take on Malaysia in a friendly series, starting March 27 in Lahore and coach Tariq Nadeem is confident that the country will benefit from the three-match event.

Pakistan team will be led by Zainab Riaz.

“This is a great opportunity for our women’s team,” Nadeem told The Express Tribune.”The series is a part of the long-term project of the Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) and this will help our players gain exposure.”

Nadeem has been working with the Pakistan women’s team for the last five years and he feels that the sport is slowly gaining momentum.

“We have played the World Cup qualifiers and participated in the Women’s Asian Cup twice before, in 2017 and 2019. The national side does rank second last among the World Baseball & Softball Confederation out of 20 teams internationally.

“The sport is growing in Pakistan. We have players coming in from different universities and departments here,” said Nadeem.

He added that the national team was selected after the National Championship that took place almost a month ago, and the players have been a part of the national camp set up in Gujranwala.

“The players had been selected for the camp after the National Championship and most of them are from departments like Army and Wapda and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) along with regional sides like Punjab. Wehave a good pool of players to take on Malaysia and this will be a good series,” said Nadeem.

He said that there had been some players from the HEC who could not join the camp and the national side, because their universities did not release them, but the strength of the team is good.

Zainab Riaz was also announced as the captain of the team on Friday.

The friendly series will take place in Lahore’s Bahria Town, and the national team players have been travelling from Gujranwala to Lahore for the event.

According to another PFB official Perwaiz Ahmed, the camp was arranged in Gujranwala due to the popularity of the sport in the city and also because most players are coming from there.

“In Pakistan we have Gujranwala, then Multan and then Lahore where baseball is played fervently. There are good facilities available for the team to train there,” said Ahmed.

The 17-member Malaysian squad arrived in Islamabad on Thursday and started their journey towards Lahore, where they had their first training session on Friday.Malaysia is led by their captain Noor Ayesha Binte Samin.

Malaysian High Commission Officer Deddy Faisal Ahmed Salleh also welcomed the Malaysian side and thanked the PFB for the series.

The PFB President Syed Fakhar Ali Shah said that the series will help promote Pakistan’s soft image in the world, along with helping both countries in the development of women’s baseball.

The series is also sanctioned by the WBSC and both teams will get world ranking points for playing the event.

The Malaysian Baseball federation President Sazali Hussain is also visiting Pakistan with his team, according to the press release.