Pakistan baseball team show they can step up to the plate
Country set sights on 2020 Olympics after bowing out of World Classic qualifying
Pakistan bowed out of the World Baseball Classic qualifying on Friday but confident the tournament has been a major milestone for the development of the sport in the cricket-mad nation.
Field hockey and cricket are Pakistan’s two major sports but with baseball returning to the Olympics in 2020, the country is hoping to take part.
The Pakistani team competed in North America for the first time this week, taking part in the qualifiers of the WBC at MCU Park in New York.
Pakistan were eliminated Friday with a 14-0 preliminary round loss to Great Britain, who advanced to the semi-finals.
They lost both their games to Brazil and Great Britain by a combined score of 24-0, but their inspiring play made them the darlings of the tournament.
“This was our first step,” said Pakistan manager Syed Fakhar Ali Shah. “We’ve never been here before and we never played against those professional players.”
And Pakistan is developing the sport from within and doing a pretty good job of cultivating home-grown talent by converting cricket players to the sport.
They have a third baseman who can hit the ball over the fence and a right handed pitcher who throws balls at more than 90mph. Pakistan is the only team competing at the tournament that doesn’t have a player born or raised in the US.
Many players on Pakistan’s national team roster are converted cricketers.
Shortstop Arsalan Jamashaid says he no longer plays cricket after switching to the Pakistan military baseball team from the military cricket team.
“When I go back, all my friends, all the people who love me playing, I will be an example for them,” Jamashaid said.
Pakistan raised a lot of eyebrows despite failing to win a game in the largest-scale international baseball tournament the country has ever participated in.
“They have tools,” Great Britain manager Liam Carroll said of Pakistan on Friday. “You can see that it’s raw. But you can see guys throwing really hard, guys who are really quick and guys who can hit the ball.”