Asian Games 2030 and Baseball5 headline WBSC video call with Asian baseball, softball leaders

Asian Games 2030 and Baseball5 headline WBSC video call with Asian baseball, softball leaders
16/09/2020
Baseball5, the popular WBSC urban discipline, is expected to continue its impressive growth in Asia over the coming years.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) continued its meetings with continental confederations on Tuesday 15 September, when WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari held a video call with representatives from the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) and Softball Asia (SA).

President Fraccari was joined by WBSC Executive Director, Michael Schmidt, SA President and WBSC Secretary General Beng Choo Low and Chris Day, from BFA.

The meeting focused on growing baseball and softball across the Asian continent and the opportunities for the sport to continue building toward future in the continent.

One of the topics of the meeting was the Asian Games 2030, one of the top multi-sports events in the world. The sport of baseball softball has been in the core of the Asian Games sports programme for the last decades. Softball has featured in eight editions of the Asian Games, including the last seven while baseball has also been at every Asian Games since 1994.

With the 2022 and 2026 Games awarded to Hangzhou (CHN) and Aichi-Nagoya (JPN) respectively, the sights have been set on the 2030 edition of the continental event. The WBSC has received letters from Qatar and Saudi Arabia confirming their bids to host the Asian Games 2030 with the WBSC and the continental bodies agreeing to support both candidates to help deliver a successful Asian Games.

The video call also reflected on the growing opportunities for Baseball5 in the continent. The exponential growth of the new WBSC urban discipline will be further boosted when official international competitions -- like the WBSC Baseball5 World Cups and the continental qualifiers -- resume, having been postponed earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.