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.