SUVA, 30 JANUARY 2020 (PACNEWS) — The Fiji Island Baseball & Softball Association (FIBSA) has made a huge impact on the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Baseball world rankings following its performance at the 2019 WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan.
The first team ever at a world stage performance has Fiji ranked 72nd and Palau ranked 82nd. The new Oceania countries that made it to the latest world rankings apart from Australia 6th, New Zealand 48th, American Samoa 50th and Guam 52nd.
FIBSA development officer Inoke Niubalavu said since baseball inception in 2000, the sport has come a long way in Fiji as it continues to gradually grow in interest and participation.
“After the 2011 Noumea, Pacific Games FIBSA relooked at our development plan and focused on community grassroots programs. Majority of those young prospects from the communities were sent overseas every year since 2012 and today these players are part of our national team development programme preparing for the upcoming regional and international competition.
“FIBSA dedicates these milestone achievements to those that have contributed to the development of baseball and softball in Fiji.
“We thank our Japanese counterparts in Fiji and Japan, JICA and the Embassy of Japan in Fiji for their continued support over the years. Also we would like to acknowledge WBSC Oceania and our parent body WBSC for their assistances over the years. Most importantly we would like to thank our players and their families for their dedication without them we wouldn’t be where we at today.
As the sport prepares to celebrate our 20th anniversary this year, this news is just the beginning of bigger things the sport is rolling out this year… PACNEWS