‘We don’t even have a stadium’

Baseball federation forced to delay inter-school event.

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Baseball Federation (PSF) has been forced to delay the boys’ inter-school championship after being unable to find a venue for the event.

The tournament, which was scheduled to start on June 4, will now be held three days later. PSF Secretary Pervaiz Shah Khawar said the delay will hamper plans to shortlist 25 players for the Asian Junior Baseball Championship that takes places in November.

“Pakistan is doing well in baseball,” Khawar told The Express Tribune. “Our men’s national team is ranked 21st out of 127 countries in the world. But we’re still waiting for the government and the Pakistan Sports Board to allot a stadium to the team. We have to wait for the Punjab Stadium to be available before arranging our tournaments.

“Despite the lack of facilities, the team has done well. Baseball has great potential and we have a plan for establishing an academy if we only had a stadium.”

The delay in inter-school championship is a setback because the school participants are on a summer vacation at the moment. The tournament will feature 12 schools with the short-listed players being trained by a foreign coach ahead of the Asian championship.

Foreign coach in the pipeline

Meanwhile, Khawar said that the federation is in the process of finalising a deal with a foreign coach from north America. However, a coach from South Korea will arrive in Pakistan in August to train the 25 participants.

“The best way to improve our juniors and seniors teams is to have as many coaches as we can. We can’t afford foreigners, but we can have courses like this one.”

He said that the PSB has approved $8,000 for the coaching programme.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2012.