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Baseball strikes root in India
Published on Sat, Jul 22, 2006 at 19:16, Updated on Sat, Jul 22, 2006 at 19:43 in 
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New York: Baseball is alien to Indians just as cricket is foreign to most Americans.
But as cricket grows in the United States courtesy immigrants from the subcontinent, baseball is heading to India.
The governing body for the game, Major League Baseball, has scheduled a month-long coaching programme in India this winter.
The World Baseball Classic, the first World Cup for the sport, was held this year.
And while baseball is considered an American sport, the WBC was won by Japan which beat Cuba in the final to clinch the title.
Major League Baseball, which runs the game, wants to spread baseball worldwide.
And India is very much on the radar. MLB International will send coaches to run clinics and camps for over a month starting November 4 this year, to five cities in India. MLB believes Indians are ready to play ball.
"It has not competition with cricket. It's another sport. It has tremendous potential. Indians play cricket at an extremely high level and there are many great athletes. They have shown through cricket that they can play the bat and ball sports. They have the skills and fundamentals," senior vice-president, Major League Baseball, Paul Archey says.
In fact, cricketing countries like South Africa and Australia played in this year's World Baseball Classic.
The five Indian cities chosen for MLB's coaching program are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Imphal.
Yes, Imphal because Manipur is central to baseball in India and there are 26 baseball clubs in the north-eastern state.
And this has been the focus of First Pitch: The US-Manipur Baseball Project, which really got the ball rolling.
"We started out just thinking about Manipur. Then we realised that Manipur could become central to Indian baseball," First Pitch's Muriel Peters says.
The next World Baseball Classic will be held in 2009. MLB doesn't expect to see India there, but it's confident that if the game takes off in India, it could be a future participant.
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