Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 11, 2022: The Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur will be the centre of the softball/baseball5 world over the next few days with three major events taking place.
At a press conference on Thursday, August 11 organised by Softball Asia and the World Baseball-Softball Confederation (WBSC)-Asia Baseball5 Commission, Softball Asia President Dato’ Low Beng Choo set the scene for the coming events.
Dato’ Low, who is also Secretary General of the WBSC and Chair of the WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission, said the following three events were being organised in Kuala Lumpur in collaboration with the Softball Association of Malaysia:
● WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Joint Seminar (Technical-Scorers-Umpires) on August 15-16.
● Softball Asia Executive Council meeting on August 16.
● Baseball5 Asia Cup – World Cup Qualifier tournament 2022 on August 17-19.
Dato’ Low said: “Baseball5 is WBSC’s new urban version of Baseball-Softball. This new 5-on-5 sport discipline was officially introduced by WBSC in 2017, where you need only bases, one ball and a field-of-play measuring 1800 cm x 2100 cm. Hence the name ‘base + ball + 5’ - Baseball5.
“Since its introduction, it has grown exponentially all over the world because of its “sport made simple” concept, with the 1st Baseball5 World Cup Open category to be organised by WBSC in 2022, and the Baseball5 World Cup Youth (U18) category in 2023. The youth category of this new sport-discipline has been included in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal in 2026.”
This first Baseball5 Asia Cup will qualify three teams for the 12-team Baseball5 World Cup 2022 in Mexico from November 7-13.
There are 41 participants from various countries-territories in Asia registered for the Baseball5 Seminar to be held prior to the tournament.
The nine teams participating in the Asia Cup/World Cup qualifier are: Hong Kong China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Chinese Taipei.
Dato’ Low was accompanied at the press conference by Sally Lim, Secretary General of Softball Asia and head of the secretariat; Valerio Cianfoni, Technical Director of the tournament from WBSC and his assistant Krisztian Toth, also from WBSC; See Kok Wooi, Chair of Softball Asia’s Competitions and Technical Commission and head of logistics; Softball Association of Malaysia’s newly elected President, Willeam Mah; and Tony Mariadass, Chief of Media for Softball Asia.
The seminar and World Cup qualifier were due to be held in 2020 but were postponed because of the pandemic.
(Issued by Softball Asia/WBSC Asia Baseball5 Commission)
