The inaugural Youth (U18) Baseball5 Asia Cup, which serves as the World Cup Qualifier tournament 2022, will begin tomorrow (Wednesday) at the Berjaya Times Square Ballroom on the newly laid surface of plywood and end on Saturday with the final.
Datuk Low Beng Choo, the secretary general of World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), President of Softball Asia and also Chair of the WBSC-Asia Baseball5 Commission, was excited with the new changes made to the venue, which looks very impressive.
From the inaugural Baseball5 Asia Cup which also served as the World Cup qualifier held at the same venue last year, the carpet surface then, has now been changed to plywood base, a spectators stand added and general improvement to the venue been made.
“I am really excited to see the start of the competition, where the teams will have an excellent facility played indoor in an air-conditioned hall and an electrifying atmosphere can be expected,” said Low.
Present yesterday with Datuk Low at the Press Conference to announce the tournament were, Sally Lim, Secretary General of Softball Asia and Head of Secretariat for the event, Valerio Cianfoni, Technical Director of the tournament from WBSC and his assistant Krisztian Toth also from WBSC, See Kok Wooi the Chair of Softball Asia’s Competitions & Technical Commission, and Head of Logistics for the event and Softball Association Malaysia’s President, Mr. Willeam Mah.
“Baseball5 is WBSC’s new urban version of Baseball-Softball. This new 5-on-5 sport discipline was officially introduced by WBSC in 2017, where you need only bases, 1 ball and a filed-of-play measuring 1800 cm x 2100 cm. Hence the name “base + ball + 5”, Baseball5,” explained Low.
“Since its introduction, it has grown exponentially all over the world because of its “Sport made simple” concept, with the 1st Baseball5 World Cup Open category to be organised by WBSC in 2022, and the Baseball5 World Cup Youth (U18) category in 2023. The Youth category of this new sport-discipline has been included in the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar 2026.
“Last year, we successfully organised the 1st Baseball5 (Open) category – World Cup qualifier for the Open category, which was well received. This year, this 1st Youth (U18) Baseball5 Asia Cup tournament is also the World Cup qualifier, to qualify the top 3 teams from Asia to be eligible to participate in the coming Youth (U18) Baseball5 World Cup 2022 to be held at the end of this year. The details for the hosting of that World Cup are being finalised.”
The continental quotas for the Baseball5 World Cup are as follows:
- Africa – 2 teams.
- Americas – 3 teams.
- Asia – 3 teams. To be determined in this Asia Cup qualifier.
- Europe – 2 teams.
- Oceania – 1 team.
- Host nation – 1 team.
Total: 12 teams
There are seven (7) teams from Asia participating in this Asia Cup – World Cup qualifier, namely:
- Hong Kong China
- India
- Korea
- Malaysia
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Chinese Taipei.