The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
JAPANESE baseball coach, Nao Tsutsumi, who recently led the Zimbabwe national team to a third-place finish at the Africa Olympic qualifier, believes the country needs more baseball action if the standard of play is to improve.
Tsutsumi said Zimbabwe needs to build a strong foundation for the sport from primary school level where teaching of basic fundamentals of baseball would be the top priority.
“Zimbabwe also needs to build at least one standard baseball field so that our players get used to playing in a proper baseball pitch instead of improvised ones currently being used. Sending more promising young players and coaches to countries where baseball is played at high levels such as Japan and USA, among others can lead to adequately skilled players and coaches who can impart their knowledge to younger players,” he said.
Tsutsumi also added that without Government support to develop baseball there is unlikely to be any meaningful improvement in the sport, adding even small support will motivate the players and association to work harder in their programmes revealing during the last tournament came from friends in Japan and USA.
South Africa won the qualifier after beating Uganda 28-0, while Zimbabwe edged Uganda 15 -14 following two extra innings after the third match playoff had ended 13-13. Assistant Americo Juma, also from Japan, said the tournament was a very good exposure for the local players who had not played in an international tournament.
“Our team did well in terms of performance since we played with most of teams that had more exposure and facing South Africa that had players who had vast experience. I think as Zimbabwe baseball the way forward to compete in the tournaments of such calibre a lot more in the future. We need to invite coaches from Japan and other countries to work with us more often during the preparations for such tournaments, so that we have time to adapt to their game style and coaching philosophy,” he said.
Zimbabwe Baseball Association president, Morris Banda who accompanied the team to South Africa said there is need to go back to the grassroots, adding it was unfortunate the economy has affected most of the country’s sports development leading to loss of talented players to other countries.
Zimbabwe went into the tournament as the underdogs team because of not having played any international tournament since 2007 and in the single round robin games the team managed to beat Burkina Faso 11-5 but lost to Uganda 15-0 and South Africa 16-1.
According to Banda, Cliff Vint one of the up and coming pitchers, pitched well and managed his games well. He is a promising future baseball player.
Matthew Banda (umpire) and Joleen Ncube (scorer) attended an officiating workshop organised by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. They also officiated during the tournament impressing WBSC instructors.
“Lovejoy Saungweme Zimbabwe baseball catcher was also honoured for playing for Zimbabwe since 1999. His jersey number 22 was retired. We applaud him for his efforts and his commitment to the team for the last 20 years. He was the number one catcher during the tournament. Shepherd Sibanda also played well registering four homeruns during the tournament.”
