August 30, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 5, 1427

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LAHORE, Aug 29: The Pakistan Federation of Baseball (PFB) has decided to introduce the game at the school level and the first national Inter-school championship will be held from Nov 2.

President PFB Shaukat Javed, told reporters on Tuesday, all the four provinces and Islamabad had been advised to first hold the Inter-school championship at provincial level.

The champion school of each province and Islamabad would qualify for the national championship, making it a five-team event, he said.

The president said that the provincial bodies had also been advised to include at least eight schools while there were no restrictions on maximum entries of schools.

He said the PFB was providing financial assistance of Rs 100,000 to each provincial body while coaches would also be provided on request to promote the game at school level.

He specified that the PFB had received a good response from the provincial associations as a good number of schools had shown interest to participate.

He explained that the provincial bodies would hold the event in September on the dates suitable to them and would convey the name of their champion school to the PFB by the end of September.

He said the school championship would be a regular annual event of the federation.

He went on to say that after winning the 7th Asia Cup in April this year Pakistan now had to play with top other five nations in the senior league next year and the PFB was in the need of expanding the base of the game in the country to meet the challenges at international level and school championship would provide the federation an opportunity to meet future requirements.

Meanwhile, the president said India had confirmed to PBF a five-match series to be held in Pakistan in January or February next year.