July 10, 2019
ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - APP - 10th Jul, 2019 ) :A 24-member Pakistan squad will depart for Sri Lanka on Friday to take part in the 14th West Asian Baseball Cup, taking place from July 15 to 20 at the Japan-Sri Lanka Friendship Baseball ground, Diyagama.
The seeing-off ceremony for the Pakistan outfit was held here at Pakistan Sports board (PSB) office, Pakistan Sports Complex Islamabad. Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), Dr Fehmida Mirza attended the ceremony to boost the morale of players. "Our players have undergone a one-month intensive training at Sports Complex Islamabad. They are in good shape and I hope they will live up to the expectations," Dr Fehmida Mirza told media.
The minister said that Pakistan had a proud record in the West Asian Baseball Championship, emerging victorious in 2010, 2012 and 2014. She said that it was heartening to note that as per the latest World Softball/Baseball Confederation rankings Pakistan stood at the 24th place out of 124 baseball playing nations, meaning it was the top ranked West Asian team. "I'm sure our team will once again display superb skills to win the cup," she said.
Fehmida said that following Pakistan team's return from the event arrangements would be made to provide better training facilities to players so that they could further excel in the game. "We will try to rope in foreign coaches and experts to polish our players' skills," she added. She appreciated Pakistan Baseball Federation stating that it was among country's 19 federations, who were being supported due to their performance. She said that all the provinces and federations had been directed to prepare their athletes for the National Games, scheduled to be held in October, this year. "We need to revive sports culture in the country and for that we will have to involve our youth in sports activities. We will have to promote sports at the grassroots level," she added.
She said that it had been decided to hold a sports diplomacy conference in which sports experts from other countries would also be invited to find out the ways to promote a healthy culture.
Besides Pakistan, hosts Sri Lanka, India, Iran, Nepal and Bangladesh will chip in the six-day event. Sri Lanka are the defending champions as they had won the last edition of West Asia championship in 2017. According to the World Softball/Baseball Confederation rankings list Iran are at number 53, India 65 and Nepal 69.
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