Inter-school baseball from November

City Association planning tournaments to promote game at the grassroot level

Mumbai kids could soon be slamming home runs across the city's maidans, thanks to the relentless efforts of the Mumbai City Baseball Association to promote the game.

The MCBA formed by coach of the Mumbai District baseball teamu00a0 Samad Pavaskar is planning an inter-school and inter-collegiate baseball tournament in order to encourage more youngsters to take up the game.



"The sport is still in a nascent stage in the city and in our efforts to encourage more and more kids to take to it we are planning a tournament for school and college students in November," Pavaskar, who is secretary of the MCBA told MiD DAY from the team's training base at the Our Lady of Salvation school ground in Dadar recently.

But, it's not been an easy ride for Pavaskar. "Initially, those who took to the game had to bear their own expenses. Even players participating in national tournaments had to pay from their pockets. This was very discouraging. But now with MCBA president Nilesh Shah offering to sponsor the entire 18-member Mumbai district team, that problem is taken care of," added Pavaskar.

"Through MCBA we want to churn out national playersu00a0 in future," added Pavaskar.

The results are already showing. At the U-18 district tournament held at Nanded recently,u00a0 the Mumbai side finished runners-up, losing by one run to Amravati. The good news though was that three of players Siddhesh Parab, Sanket Shinde, Pradeep Patil got picked for the state side.