PFB looking for players of Pakistani heritage

The Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) is looking for players of Pakistani heritage in the United States and Canada in order to build the national squad for the U15 Asian Championship.

The event will be held in China in August this year.

“Open try outs for Pakistani heritage players in USA/Canada. We are looking for baseball players born in 2008, 2009 and 2010 for the upcoming U15 Asian Championships from August 19th to 24th in China. Great opportunity to be seen and compete internationally,” PFB said on its official Twitter account on Tuesday.

Earlier, Pakistan jumped five places in the latest rankings issued by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).

The Men in Green are currently in 38th place on the table with 119 points.

“The WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings includes all results from the past four years across WBSC sanctioned tournaments from U-12 Baseball World Cup to the Premier12 and World Baseball Classic as well as continental tournaments and friendlies with the top 12 nations qualifying for the next edition of the WBSC Premier12,” the WBSC said in a press release.

It must be noted that Pakistan defeated Palestine 11-3 in the final of the West Asia Cup 2023 in Islamabad in February earlier this year.

West Asia Cup featured teams from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Palestine.

After qualifying for the final, Pakistan and Palestine also booked their place in the Asian Baseball Championship, which serves as a Baseball World Cup qualifying event.

Japan, who recently won the World Baseball Classic for a record third time, are in first place with 5,323 points, while the United States (4,402) moved up one spot to second position and Mexico (4,130) are up two places to third.

Chinese Taipei (4,061) and South Korea (4,049) are in fourth and fifth place, respectively, with Venezuela (3,534) slotted in at number six. Cuba (seventh with 3,151 points) and Australia (ninth, 2,600) also improved their ranking by one position. The Netherlands (3,089) slipped one spot and are now number eight while the Dominican Republic (2,415) is 10th.

Italy (2,017) was one of the biggest movers, moving up four positions to number 12.

Among the other World Baseball Classic teams, China gained seven positions to number 23, Israel (18) and Great Britain (20) also move up two spots.

“The WBSC ranked a total of 84 men's baseball programmes, which is an increase of three since the start of the year with Afghanistan, Laos, Palestine and Thailand joining, while American Samoa dropped out. Costa Rica and Bangladesh, in 61st place, are the biggest movers, up 15 and 13 places respectively,” the press release added.