IN THE SWING

Baseball fever is gripping the nation as keen schoolboys join together to represent the kingdom in tournaments across the Gulf, writes Mai Al Khatib.

The Bahrain Baseball stars recently took part in their first international tournament in Dubai and displayed plenty of skill and promise, say the organisers.

The first team squad currently has a line-up of 12 youngsters of different nationalities aged between seven and 10 supported by parents and friends.

A baseball programme was launched four years ago at the Bahrain School in Manama and following an open invitation to other schools in the kingdom the sport's popularity has started to spread.

There are 66 students from Bahrain School, St Christopher's School, Nadeen School and a few who are home schooled currently playing regularly, making up two teams of children ages five to nine and three teams of children from 10 to14.

Tracy Kielp, programme organiser, said: "The representative Bahrain Baseball team was put together this spring in preparation for Dubai's annual baseball tournament that involved countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE.

"We've been invited to previous tournaments but had to decline due to the newness of our league.

"We learned a lot about building a baseball programme by receiving ideas from numerous coaches and had tremendous support from neighbouring GCC countries as their representatives were extremely excited about Bahrain becoming involved.

"We need to focus on the fact that there is a baseball programme currently up and running in Bahrain and we are trying to get the word out about it with the hope of gaining even more support from the local community.

"We would also love to become 'US Little League' certified which would allow us to participate in a 'World Series' event in the US staged at Williamsport, Pennsylvania, as Saudi Arabia sends a team every year."

Players practice three times a week - Tuesday, Thursday and Friday - at Bahrain School and games are played twice a week on Saturday and Wednesday.

Tracy said: "If we were to establish a public baseball league, we believe we would get more Bahrainis to play as we have had several locals who attended the school enjoying the sport."

She says baseball enthusiasts now have a vision of how they would like the game developed on the island. She added: "We would love to be able to continue sending teams to tournaments and in the future hosting our own events.

"We would also very much like to bring the love of the game of baseball to all those living in Bahrain. However, this will take much commitment and would require great financial support from the community and possibly sponsorship from companies here.

"We are looking at putting a presentation together for GOYS to see if this is something that would be an area of interest for community development."

For details, contact Tracy on 39691396 or email tkinbahrain@aol.com.