KARACHI: Softball Federation of Pakistan (SFP) will be establishing the first softball academy in Karachi next month with plans to expand the program to other cities namely Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad very soon, SFP Secretary General Asif Azeem said on Thursday.
He disclosed that SFP President Haider Khan Lehri has given green signal to the federation to launch the academy in Karachi next month.
Asif added that the initiative to establish a softball academy in Karachi was taken after seeing great interest of young players in the sport and the academy intend to teach modern techniques and rules and regulation to the budding players.
He added that there has been a great need for the academy in order to enhance the physical fitness and skills of the players. “Qualified coaches will be hired to run the academy while former and present players will be tasked with training both male and female players,” said Asif.
“We are in negotiations for a place for the academy and hopefully we would reach an agreement soon after Eid,” Asif said.
He added that international coaches would also be visiting Karachi to coach at the academy and the SFP is already in contact with Softball Confederation of Asia (SCA) for this purpose.
“The federation is also in contact with qualified coaches of different countries to hire them for Pakistan’s men and women teams respectively. That would help us establish strong teams for foreign assignments, which could win us games against better sides and subsequently improve Pakistan’s international standing in the game,” he said.
He added that players who would perform well at the academy would also be sent abroad for coaching and training courses as well.
SFP has appointed Sindh Softball Association (SSA)’s Mohammad Nasir as Karachi Softball Academy director while Imran Zaman will be the coordinator and Faraz Aijaz will be the chief coach.
Interested players are directed to get registered by emailing to sfpsoftballacademy@gmail.com or contact Faraz Aijaz at 0313-2485900.
Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2018
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