KARACHI: The high-profile Softball Asia Pakistan Coaching Clinic, which is being supervised by World Baseball-Softball Confederation trainers, commenced here at the Karachi Gymkhana on Thursday.

The event began under the supervision of WBSC Senior Instructor Michael Alan Renney who has come from Canada to lead the WBSC event in Karachi. Malaysian coaches Hanifa Muhammad Hamid and Noor Hajr are also assisting him.

Coaches associated with Army, Wapda, Omar Associates, Sindh, Punjab, KPK, Baluchistan and Islamabad attended the coaching clinic.

The instructors started the day with multi-media presentation and told the participants about the history of the game, preparation of the playfield, how to play the game, rules and regulations, modern techniques and other basic information about the sport.

Later, the participants were also given session on physical training in the ground and they also practiced ball pitching and catching.

On the occasion, Renney also said that WBSC has chosen Pakistan for this event due to the good performance of Softball Federation of Pakistan (SFP) and added that he was happy to see coaches taking interest in the WBSC event. “I can sense immense talent among these coaches. I hope Pakistan would excel in the game in times to come and I would also request all of these coaches to work hard with their departments and associations when they go back from here,” Renney said.

Essa Laboratories CEO Dr. Farhan Essa was the chief guest on the occasion. He praised SFP for diligently promoting the game of softball in the country. “SFP has worked really well to promote the game of softball in the country. This is the reason that WBSC is organizing this international level event in Pakistan,” he said. He added that SFP has achieved this milestone in little time and tremendous work has been done at the grass-root level to upwards.

Meanwhile, SFP Secretary Asif Azeem said that this day would be counted among historic days for softball in Pakistan. “It was a dream for us to host this coaching event and we will now host Olympic Solidarity Course during this current year where more international trainers would come to Pakistan,” said Asif.

He praised government departments and private sector including Essa Laboratories for helping and promoting softball in the country and hoped that others would also extend a helping hand so that the players could be facilitated in a befitting manner.

SFP President Haider Khan Lehri and Mohammad Zeeshan Merchant also spoke on the occasion.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2019