Story by Mthokozisi Dube
PREPARATIONS for the six-day Baseball Festival pencilled for Gweru next month are on course, with the tournament set to be used for the selection of the national team for the African Baseball Championships.
Gweru’s Chaplin High School will be the venue for the festival, which will see three age groups, the Under 15, Under 18, and seniors for both boys and girls tussling it out for national team selection for the African Championships set for Borkburg, South Africa later this year.
Bulawayo province has been hosting friendly matches ahead of the festival set to run from the 7th to the 12th of next month.
The players are looking forward to being selected to represent the country in South Africa.
“It is a great opportunity to experience how other provinces are playing the sport. It is truly a learning platform, though the focus also remains on being selected for national team duty. This is my first time participating in a festival, but with our current level of practice, I believe we can perform well as a province,” one of the players noted.
The Baseball Association of Zimbabwe is hoping to stage a memorable tournament.
“This year’s festival will be in Gweru from August 7 to 12. So, in terms of preparations, we have our different age groups preparing. We have had some school tournaments where we picked some of our players. Others were selected from the provincial league that is running,” Baseball Association Vice President, Eldon Mudzingwa said.
Post the baseball festival, players selected for the national team will represent the country in the African championships in Boksburg, South Africa, which serves as a qualifying event for the World Cup pencilled for the United States of America in December.
