September 5, 2003	Friday	Rajab 7, 1424

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LAHORE, Sept 4: Hirotoshi Watanbe, the Japanese coach of the Pakistan baseball team has said that Pakistan has the ability to beat Indonesia and The Philippines and present a strong challenge to China in the Asia Cup to be held at Sapporo Japan from Oct 31 to Nov 7.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Watanabe stated that he had seen Pakistan team in action in Thailand and hoped it would emerge as a top team of Asia.

Queried about his credentials, Watanabe pointed out that he was a qualified coach of Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) and had been played as pitcher.

Also present on the occasion was Pakistan Federation Baseball and Softball president Shaukat Javed who remarked that he expected the team to attain fourth or fifth position in the seven-nation contest.

He said that besides Pakistan and hosts Japan, the other participating teams are South Korea, China, Taiwan, Philippine and Australia.

However, his federation would bear the lodging expenditures of the Japanese coach.

Shaukat said that BFA would also help Pakistan by providing a pitching machine. The machine would be here by Sept 15, he claimed. The machine can pitch the ball with a speed upto 100 km per hour, he said.

He said that Pakistan would fight to get the fourth position as it would pave the way to qualify for the next World Cup. Top four teams would qualify for the World Cup and the top two to the Athens Olympics-2004, he disclosed.

The coach will start training in the camp which is being set up at the Army baseball ground, Rawalpindi from Sept 6.