Jim Small says 'Cricket's popularity will help baseball grow in India'

The popularity of cricket is a boon rather than a bane for the spread of baseball in India according to Major League Baseball Senior Vice President International Jim Small If the kid has grown up throwing the ball its a very short way to going from cricket to baseball he saidThe MLB opened its sixth international office on Tuesday in New Delhi and kicked off the MLB First Pitch a grassroots program that the league has already put to use in China and Mexico We now know what we are good at India is different from the rest of the world but weve been in China for 10 years and now we have seven players who have signed contracts with major league teams and we have MLB being shown five days a week on the number one television network there we have 300 stores selling our products all of that was 8 to 10 years ago he saidChina is different from India of course but we know now that if we have a long term strategy and be patient we can be successful The opportunity is that in China nobody threw There was no reference to a bat and ball sport We have that hereIndia has its fair share of obscure sports But baseball is different in the way that it does not have the ubiquity that sports like football badminton or basketball enjoys in many parts of the country Thinking of it as being similar to cricket would be a mistake too as former cricketer Mohammed Kaif would tell you from his experience at the launchKaif was the chief guest and took the ceremonial first pitch The ball was a bigger soft ball than the regular ball used in baseball and yet the former international batsman best known for his masterful 87 not out against England in 2002 and the scorer of 19 First Class centuries needed several empty swings before connecting oneSo how does the MLB plan to overcome the obstacle of the sheer lack of knowledge of even the existence of the sport among large parts of the population A lot of it will be just about education One of the great opportunities here is that 90 percent of Indians are on a connected device and this is in a country of over a billion people So connectivity here is unlike anything else in the world So if we do what we do in the right way within a social media context we can get that moving quickly he saidSmall also said that there is a precedent of a country familiar with cricket doing well in baseball Weve seen this in Australia We have over 40 players from Australia that have played in the major leagues Cricket is a summer sport there and clubs in the country were worried that they were losing kids to Aussie rules football or rugby So they started baseball teams to keep those kids in the clubs and that worked A lot of those kids went on to play major leagues That is an example of kids being transferred from cricket to baseball he saidBaseball has something that cricket doesnt a spot in the Olympics Tokyo 2020 will feature the sport for the first time since Beijing 2008 Big players involved in the MLB were unable to participate in the Olympics due to the multisport event coming in the middle of the league season and this issue could crop up again in 2020Small said that while the availability of the major leaguers is important for baseball to remain a permanent fixture in the Olympics working things out with the MLBs schedule is a tough obstacle to overcomeBaseball in the Olympics is very important We have also initiated conversations for the baseball to go to the Olympics permanently The challenge is the idea that MLB players have to be in the OlympicsIf that is the price of it then it will be difficult because that would require us shutting down our season for twothree weeks We have players from all over the world so its not just a question sending a few American players he saidSmall also said that getting an Indian team playing baseball at the international stage is one of the goals that the MLB has while trying to make inroads in the country We have the World Baseball Classic Pakistan has featured in the qualifiers India has not It will be difficult for the next edition in 2021 but by 2025 we want to see an Indian team there said SmallCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates