Two former MLB players are leading a push to bring the sport that made them famous to India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
Former New York Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera and ex-Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin are the faces behind the United International Baseball League (UIBL), which plans to bring professional baseball to an area of the world more associated with another bat-on-ball sport: cricket.
The league is to begin with an inaugural showcase tournament in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in February next year. Further plans for the location of teams and their personnel are still in the works.
Photo: AP
The league said in a statement that the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East region are home to 2 billion people “and more than 900 million of those people are fans of cricket.”
“While baseball exists in small pockets across south Asia and the Gulf ... there is an absence of professional leagues and a void of deep, grassroots player development expertise and infrastructure,” the statement said. “The UIBL team is looking to change that.”
Panama-born Rivera spent his entire career with the Yankees over 19 seasons from 1995 to 2013, primarily as a relief pitcher and closer. He made 13 All-Star Game appearances, won five World Series, is MLB’s all-time leader in saves with 652 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.
“I’m very grateful to be a part of the UIBL’s exciting mission to inspire 2 billion new fans to fall in love with baseball,” Rivera said. “We believe there is an amazing opportunity to educate, inspire and entertain those cricket fans, and open their hearts to an exciting and culturally relevant form of baseball.”
The Cincinnati-born Larkin was a career-long Reds player in his hometown. He won an MVP award, a World Series title, was selected to 12 All-Star teams and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.
Larkin said that teaching prospective baseball talent the basics was a strong part of the new league’s mission.
“We truly believe that player development has to start at the grassroots level,” Larkin said. “I’ve spent the last 20 years of my life focused on helping young people learn the fundamentals of our great game, as well as the fundamentals of great leadership. That’s the beauty of baseball — when you teach it the right way with the right conviction, you can help young people succeed on and off the field.”
The new league said that while baseball’s fan base has an average age of 57, cricket fans are among the world’s youngest sports fans, with an average age of 34. Nowhere is cricket more popular than in India and Pakistan.
The league said that it has plans to “innovate and evolve” baseball “to help capture and engage this younger, more diverse demographic.”
Without going into specific details, it also said that the league would “introduce rule changes, create original game-play concepts, and bring to life a more immersive viewing experience for fans at the stadium and home.”
The inaugural showcase tournament to be played solely in Dubai is to include four franchises representing different parts of the world.
The league said that franchises, managers, coaches and rosters would be announced at a later date.
The baseball would be competing for attention with a new franchise T20 cricket league launching at about the same time in the United Arab Emirates.
Star cricketers from around the world are likely to join the six-team International League T20.
TOOTHLESS: Bologna never looked like finding a way back, and Antonio Conte and his substitutes were waiting to celebrate long before the final whistle SSC Napoli on Monday lifted the Italian Supercoppa with a 2-0 win over Bologna in Riyadh, David Neres netting both goals to earn the league champions a deserved victory over the toothless Coppa Italia winners. Neres opened the scoring with a stunning strike from distance six minutes before halftime and found the net again in the 57th minute when Bologna were caught trying to play out of defense. “We came here as champions of Italy, we wanted this trophy and we showed it with a great performance,” Napoli forward Matteo Politano told Mediaset. “We could have scored a few more goals, but
Backup quarterback Luke Weaver on Wednesday night threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Nick Cenacle with 10 seconds left, as the University of Hawaii rallied for a 35-31 comeback victory over the University of California, Berkeley in a thrilling Hawaii Bowl. Weaver entered the game after Micah Alejado took a hard hit on the previous play. With the Rainbow Warriors (9-4) in range for a tying field goal, coach Timmy Chang took a shot at the end zone, and Cenacle got between two defensive backs and made the contested catch. “How amazing is that?” Chang said. “It’s a program that is built
Hosts Morocco on Friday were held to a 1-1 draw by Mali at the Africa Cup of Nations, ending their world record run of wins and leaving them still to make sure of progress to the next stage. Midfielder Brahim Diaz tucked away a penalty in stoppage-time at the end of the first half, but Mali equalized from the spot midway through the second half through Lassine Sinayoko. Both penalties were awarded after video reviews in a tempestuous clash at the end of a busy day of action at the tournament. Morocco were atop the Group A standings with four points, while Zambia,
An astounding 20 wickets fell on a frantic first day of the fourth Ashes Test yesterday, with Australia all out for 152 before storming back to dismiss England for 110 and leave the clash on a knife-edge. England skipper Ben Stokes won a key toss on a green track and his quicks feasted after sending in the hosts under overcast skies in front of 94,199 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was the biggest cricket crowd ever at the cavernous arena, exceeding the 93,013 who watched the 2015 World Cup final, and they witnessed the home side collapse with Josh Tongue
RSS