Baseball, Softball instructors in town

WORLD Baseball and Softball Confederation instructors and scorers are in the country for the inaugural Coaches, Umpires and Scorers International Level 1 courses at Prince Edward School this week.

The course will run from today until Saturday.

It is meant to develop coaches and umpires to match world class standards in baseball and softball.

Aundrea D’auria of Federazione Italiana Baseball said the WBSC instructors have come into the country to train Zimbabwean coaches and umpires.

“We have come to train the local coaches and umpires and to give them the basic knowledge of baseball because, in baseball, if the coach does not have the knowledge then it become difficult for the players,’’ said D’auria.

“We understand that we cannot come for three days and train the players and leave without training the coaches who will train them for the next 360 days a year.’’

The WBSC will on Friday introduce Baseball Five, a sport they created a year ago.

It has the same dynamics with softball but there is a slight difference.

The pitch size is like a softball infill and it’s 50 metres long.

Softball and baseball in Zimbabwe have significantly risen with the Zimbabwe Softball women’s team being ranked, for the first time, on the WBSC rankings.

Vincent Maoeng ,WBSC regional co-ordinator in Africa, has urged the Zimbabwe Softball Association to have huge media coverage of the sport.

“Our target as WBSC is that in every country we have the same kind of score-keeping, data and to go daily on the website and show the results of their league.

“If we do not show what we do then we have no visibility.’’

Zimbabwe Softball Association president, Stonard Mapfumo, welcomed the visit by the officials.