HEC clinch women’s baseball championship

Team beats K-P in final; remains unbeaten throughout national event.

KARACHI:

Higher Education Commission (HEC) secured the National Women’s Baseball Championship as they defeated Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) 16-2 at the Lahore Stadium yesterday.

HEC remained undefeated in the championship that was also featuring Punjab and Sindh.

According to the winning team captain Zaiba Awan, participation in the event has guaranteed more opportunities for the players.

“We were confident of winning the championship from the very first day,” Zaiba told The Express Tribune. “It’s an honour for all the players in the team because we have won the first gold medal for our department in this sport. Since most of the players are also students, we believe that this gold medal will help us in securing scholarships as well.”

Zaiba further said that the merger of the international softball and baseball federations, which took place last month, means that women players can now freely choose between the two sports. She also dispelled the impression that softball was more popular with women as compared to baseball, saying that females were as competitive in the sport as males.

“I think that upon comparison, baseball is the more popular sport among females. I also believe that we’ve had enough cricket and it’s time that other sports make way in our country. I switched from cricket and can safely say that baseball will offer more opportunities for women in the future.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2013.