LAHORE: President of Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) Syed Fakhar Ali Shah on Monday inaugurated Khawar Shah Youth Baseball Academy in Okara.

It is the second baseball academy after the first one which has been working in Lahore for the last three years.

The academy was inaugurated at a special function arranged by the Okara Baseball Association.

Speaking on the occasion, Fakhar said Okara had produced a good number of baseball players for the federation, adding “this academy will help to groom more players who could bring laurels for the country”.

“PFB has a plan to set up more academies in different regions and for this it has appealed to the government to lend the federation a helping hand,” he added.

Fakhar hailed Okara baseball president Mohammad Hamood Lakhvi, who is also vice-president of the federation, for taking appropriate steps in setting up the academy.

Hamood said Okara had produced two international baseball players namely Tariq Nadeem and Saleem Haider.

It may be mentioned here that Pakistan have attained fifth spot in the Asian baseball rankings and 24th in the world rankings. However, it is unfortunate that still there is no baseball stadium in Pakistan under the PFB control.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2020