ZBA braces for World Cup qualifiers

THE Zimbabwe Baseball Association is preparing for the Under-23 Baseball Africa World Cup Qualifiers set for South Africa next month.

Johannesburg will play host to the Under-23 Baseball World Cup qualifier from February 21-27.

The winner will complete the set of 12 participating national teams, which will participate in the V WBSC Baseball Cup, which will be held in Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Culture Centre in China from September 6-15.

Four teams have so far confirmed participation in the African qualifiers.

Zimbabwe will face South Africa, Benin and Uganda for the sole ticket to the World Cup.

Winmore Muvariri, the Under-23 team manager says preparations for the qualifiers are well on course.

“We recently concluded our first training camp in Gweru and we have two more camps before the tournament. It’s not going to be an easy competition as our opponents are the top baseball playing nations in Africa. I believe we have done all we need to do for us to be ready for the challenge ahead. I have all the confidence in the team and I strongly believe we will put up a fight,” said Muvariri.

ZBA has also made strides towards the introduction of a new version of the game called Base-ball 5.

Baseball5 is a fast-paced and youth-focused urban discipline, first established by the World Baseball Softball Confederation in 2017.

The very first WBSC Baseball5 Championship took place in Havana, Cuba, on November 23-24 2017.

Five-inning games were played with five on-field players on each side.

Competitors were limited to using only their bare hands to hit and field the balls.

The new version of the game has been on the rise since then.