Karachi:Softball Federation of Pakistan (SFP) will be establishing first softball academy in Karachi from next month with plans to expand the program to other cities, namely Lahore, Quetta Peshawar and Islamabad.
SFP President Haider Khan Lehri has given green signal to the federation to launch the first academy in Karachi next month.
Meanwhile, SFP Secretary Asif Azeem said that 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 would intend to teach modern techniques and rules and regulation to players.
He added that there has been a great need for the academy in order to alleviate physical fitness and polish skills of players. He added that qualified coaches would be hired to run the academy. Moreover, former and present players will be tasked with training both male and female players.
“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 come to coach at the academy as well and added that they were already in contact with Softball Confederation of Asia (SCA) for this purpose.
“Meanwhile, the federation is also in contact with qualified coaches of different countries to hire them for Pakistan’s men’s and women’s teams.”
He further said the federation would try to bring foreign coaches to Pakistan so that they could be able to coach maximum players. It would help in increasing pool of players, which would consequently increase competition among players. They would then try to perform better than others, polish their game in order to get considered for selection.
“This would help us establish strong teams for foreign assignments, which could win 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 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; Imran Zaman as Coordinator and Faraz Aijaz as chief coach.
Interested players, who want to participate in the academy’s activities, are directed to get registered by emailing to sfpsoftballacademy@gmail.com or contact Faraz Aijaz at phone number 03132485900.