Baseball looking to make an India pitch again
Mumbai: Along the E66 highway that connects Dubai with Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates stands a newly built baseball stadium. It caters to a sport popular in the United States and Japan, but largely alien in India. In November, though, the sporting oasis in the desert will be home to an Indian franchise set to compete in the inaugural season of Baseball United.
The competition is the first professional baseball league that will look to engage the Middle East and South Asia region. Though still in the nascent stage of planning, the competition is slated to feature four teams – the Mumbai Cobras, Karachi Monarchs, Arabia Wolves and Mid East Falcons.
The tournament was founded on an idea presented by former Major League Baseball (MLB) winner Barry Larkin, who is considered one of the greatest players of his generation.
'He came to me and said there's an opportunity for us to take baseball outside of the US,' Baseball United CEO and chairman Kash Shaikh told HT. 'It was our simple hypothesis that if we could inspire just some of these cricket fans to fall in love with America's pastime of baseball, a sport that you still hit, run, catch, throw – the same fundamentals as cricket – then we could really grow something special.'
This is not the first time baseball has tried to make inroads in the Indian market. In 2008, Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh won a reality show called The Million Dollar Arm, and were signed up by MLB outfit Pittsburgh Pirates.
Shaikh asserted that Baseball United, though looking to find a foothold in India, is not competing with cricket. Instead, they hope to provide another avenue for budding cricket players.
'Those 11 places in the Indian national (cricket) team are the most coveted spots across the country,' Shaikh said. 'But just because you aren't able to make it, does not mean you don't have the talent. There's a lot of levels of cricket, we wanted to create another pathway, another opportunity for people who love cricket to learn baseball. There is so much passion for sport in India, particularly with bat and ball.'
At the moment, the organisers are still in search of potential owners of the four franchises, and Shaikh explained that they are also in talks with potential broadcast partners.
'We're just starting to explore selling the franchises now,' he said. 'A lot of folks from Hollywood and Bollywood have been reaching out to us about interest in the teams, particularly Mumbai.'
As for the players themselves, a major chunk will be former MLB draft picks. There are expected to best players from Sweden, Lithuania, and Cameroon, to name a few, coming in as well. Around 10% of the spots in the four teams are for 'prospects from India, Pakistan, (West Asia), areas that are learning the game.'
As it stands, Baseball United's first match of the season will be one that plays to the cricketing gallery – a clash between the Indian and Pakistani franchises. A first big splash in the Arabian desert.
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