LAHORE: Syed Fakhar Ali Shah, the president of the Pakistan Baseball Federation (PBF), has been appointed as a member of the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) Development Commission.

Fakhar said that it was the first time that anyone from South Asia was included in the commission, adding it was a great honour for the country.

Fakhar, who has also been elected as Development Director of Asia’s baseball body this year, said he had received the official letter signed by World Baseball president Riccardo Fraccari, appointing him as member of the WBSC Development Commission.

“This recognition at the world level is a proof that baseball in Pakistan is improving but we have to do a lot of more work to achieve what Pakistan deserves in the game of baseball,” Fakhar said.

He said it was unfortunate that no specific baseball stadium was available in the country, but still the country had achieved fifth ranking in Asia and it was among the top 23 baseball-playing countries.

“We presented our case before the National Standing Committee on Sports last week on which recommendations the Pakistan Sports Board

will spend Rs1.5 million to renovate the baseball ground at the Islamabad Sports Complex,” Fakhar said.

The PBF would be holding the West Asia Baseball Cup at the Islamabad Sports Complex from Dec 26 in which teams from India, Iran, Palestine, Nepal, Sri Lanka would participate, he added.

Fakhar said as PBF president he had also suggested the National Assembly Standing Committee on Sports to recommend to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to waive tax on those sports goods, which were donated by international sports bodies to Pakistan.

“We missed many opportunities of receiving [baseball] equipment [given to us as donation] just because the federation has no funds to get those items released after paying huge custom duties,” the PBF president underlined.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2022