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| October 26, 2003 | Sunday | Sha’aban 29, 1424 |
Baseball team for Japan to compete in Asia Cup
LAHORE, Oct 25: A 30-member Pakistan squad will take part in the Asia Cup baseball championship to be held at Sapparo, Japan from Oct 31 to Nov 7.
The squad including 22 players and eight officials will leave for Japan on Sunday. Pakistan Baseball and Softball Federation secretary, Syed Khawar Shah, told Dawn that if Pakistan defeat China, it could qualify for the World Cup and that would be a great achievement.
Top four teams, out of total six participating, will qualify for the World Cup and two finalists to the Athens Olympics-2004.
Besides Pakistan, China and host Japan the other teams participating are The Philippines, Korea and Taiwan. Pakistan qualified for the Asia Cup after taking second position in the qualifying round which was held in Thailand last year.
He said that Japanese coach Vitnabey, who is accompanying the team as head coach, trained the Pakistan team at Lahore for two months and hopefully Pakistan would beat China.
The coach was provided by the Asian Baseball and Softball Confederation which also gifted a bowling machine to Pakistan.
The secretary said that he would brief the Asian body during a meeting which will be held during the championship, about the steps Pakistan had taken to host next year’s Asia Cup qualifying round.
The Asian body has already allotted the competition to Pakistan.
Team: Asjad Mehmood, Mohammad Zahid Iqbal, Saleem Hyder, Mohammad Shabbir, Mohammad Omar Islam, Mohammad Atif Malik.
Aashiq Hussain, Syed Fakhar Ali Shah.
Basit Murtaza, Shafqatullah Khan, Mussadaq Hanif, Mohammad Imran.
Shahzad Anwar, Nasir Nadeem, Mohammad Farooq Khan. Imtiaz Ali. Saqib Butt. Mohammad Latif Moughal, Riaz Khan. Abdur Rehman, Mohammad Asif Mushtaq, Kamran Mehboob.
Officials: Shujaat Ali Rana, Hyder Khan Lehri, Vitnabey, Asmatullah Khan Niazi, Wasal Mohammad, Ihtesham ul Haq, Shah Mohammad, Jameel Kamran.
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