The Sunday News
Patrick Mushunje, Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE national baseball team, coach Washington Nyika has challenged stakeholders to play a part in the upliftment of the sport in the country.
Speaking after arriving from South Africa where they were invited to play in the South African National Baseball Championships B league annual tournament in Durban, Nyika said Zimbabwe is still far behind in as far as baseball is concerned and a lot needs to be done concerning the issue.
“After being accorded a chance to play in South Africa, I have realised that we are still far behind in terms of developing the game of baseball, our playing conditions as a national team cannot even match those of their colleges, the clubs use international stuff from their bats, gloves, coaches, the pitch and what makes South African baseball more special is the crowd turn out.
Those people really have baseball but here in Zimbabwe, we do not have national standard equipment and the fact that we as a national team played in the B league of the SA NBC League instead of the highly rated A League speaks volumes, we need to develop Zim baseball,” Nyika said.
He pleaded with companies to sponsor the baseball league and the national team citing that Zimbabwe has the talent which is capable of competing with the South African NBC A League and even their national team.
“Looking at the current crop of players that Zimbabwe has, all I can say is we have a team which is capable, considering the age of the national team, most of our players are still young, meaning they still have a lot of playing years ahead of them, they are already upsetting tables for people with high performances since we managed we beat South African clubs like Mandela Bay, the other thing is we are calling out for big companies to come in and sponsor baseball because we need their financial help,” he said.
Asked if he had made any effort to get sponsorship for Zim baseball, he said, “To be honest I have appealed to the ministry for their help a lot of times but it has been to no avail.
“I distaste this idea that we have to be at the mercy of other countries while we have our sports ministry, I am giving a strong challenge to the sports ministry that they must come in handy and provide financial assistance to the Zimbabwe Baseball Association board for the betterment of our sport.”
Zimbabwe have a baseball league which is constantly punctuated by financial challenges and resources, as a result they end up playing city leagues and friendlies then twice a year they play inter-provincial tournaments.
The national baseball team is preparing for the Olympic qualifiers, the date and the venue of the qualifiers are yet to be announced.
