ISLAMABAD: Determined to seal the 2020 Olympic berth, Pakistan’s 18-member contingent will depart for Chinese Taipei on Friday to feature in the 29th BFA Asian Baseball Championship.

The week-long continental event being staged from Oct 14 to 20 in Taichung City of Chinese Taipei serves as Olympic qualifiers.

“We’ve received visas of our players and officials today and they will fly from Lahore Airport on Friday,” Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) president Syed Fakhar Ali Shah told APP on Wednesday.

“We’ve tried our best to prepare a strong outfit. The players have undergone tough training at a camp in Lahore. They are going with the conviction to finish at the top.”

The world No. 24 Pakistan qualified for the Asian Championship after finishing second in the West Asia Baseball Cup that took place in Colombo in July this year.

Organised by Baseball Federation of Asia, the biennial continental event is the first-level tournament featuring national teams of Asian.

Squad:

Taimoor Javed, Ihtisham-ul-Haq, Rizwan Ali, Alamgir Khan, Mohammad Majeed, Fazal-ur-Rehman, Mohammad Zakir, Umair Imdad Bhatti, Sumair Zawar, Mohammad Jawad Khan, Mohammad Ehsan, Usman Ali, Atif Ahmed, Mohammad Afzaal, Ahsan Bilal

Officials: Haseeb Mohammad (manager), Musaddiq Hanif (head coach) and Basit Murtaza (coach).

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2019