Ramachandra Reddy is unanimously elected as the President of Baseball Federation of India announced at the Annual General Body Meeting held on Saturday in Hyderabad.
Speaking on the occasion Reddy said that with the support of all State Governments and Union Government specifically work under sports minister Anurag Thakur for encouraging the sport is highly laudable. He also assured to work as a team to achieve all the initiatives and future endeavours aimed in the General body meeting while promoting the game and bring laurels to the federation in particular and Indian Sports in general. Reddy further said that the Baseball fraternity in the country includes ex-International & National players to form a platform to develop the game as desired in tune with MYAS. It may be recalled that about 20 State Associations in the country congregated at Hyderabad and formed BASEBALL FEDERATION OF INDIA.
He said in the recent years the Indian sports development includes sports other than cricket, and have taken substantial traction and garnered much needed impetus from all the stakeholders involved. However, the recent success of India at the Tokyo Olympics 2020, have shown that India has the appetite to consume sports other than cricket, which are not only globally played but are not yet popular in India.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports(MYAS) has taken up the onus to safeguard the interest of the athletes who are in serious dilemma due to the de-recognition of their federations, and are unable to participate in important international tournaments, which is not only an obstruction to their own career, but also hinders India’s path towards becoming a successful sports country said Reddy.
L. Rajender, Ex-International level player is elected as General Secretary and T. Padmanabhan as Treasurer along with other executive members from across the country said Reddy.
Kindly recall that baseball is one sport that has great intent of making India a global sports power and put the country on the global level in level with the countries playing Baseball, as well as adding an additional medal opportunity in the Olympic mega-event. It is pertinent to note that Indian Baseball players have been suffering due to the de-recognition of the federation as now they are bereft of the already less amount of opportunities and at the same time are missing out on key international Baseball tournaments happening all around the world.
The Association hopes that MYAS’s decision to support athletes of the derecognized federations, in getting a representation in global tournaments, will go a long way in not only helping the existing sports develop but also give much needed impetus to sports like Baseball that has a great future in India due to the existing pool of bat and ball sports in India. We hope that MYAS, along with the decision of supporting Indian athletes, also focus on sports in India, like Baseball, who although have a huge amount of talent and opportunities, have not yet received the recognition and support it deserves.
