`Two 23-year-old youngmen, one from India and the other from America, sharing a common love — baseball -— are keen to make India the newest destination of another bat-and-ball game.
Having played baseball for more than a decade, Raunak Sahni and Jackson Golden are addicted to the sport and believe that in a country crazy about cricket, especially the slam-bang T20 version of the game, it would not be difficult to propagate baseball. They joined hands to form Grand Slam Baseball and restructure an amateur league which was broadly restricted to children of foreign nationals working in different embassies in Delhi with the hub centre being the baseball ground on the premises of the American embassy.
Now, the one-year-old league, named New Delhi Little League, has accommodated children from different schools — including New Delhi’s Modern School (Barakhamba Road) and students of some Government schools — and is aspiring to travel beyond the boundaries of the American Embassy by attracting other educational institutions.
“These kids (from Modern School) have played for only two months. Since they have played cricket, they already have good hand-eye coordination. It then becomes easier to learn and therefore becomes more attractive. Initially, when we approached the school, its sports instructors said they would not allow us to run day-to-day programmes, it can only be a promotional programme after the school hours. But in just onemonth, from two kids we have now 80,” says Raunak Sahni.
Both Sahni and Jackson want to nurture talent and maintain high standard while conducting the league and inculcate a sporting culture among the kids. “The focus is on quality. We do not want to do anything half-hearted. If we do some mediocre and okay performance here and go to another city, we do not have the impact. I want people to know that Delhi has a very good baseball platform and that should be the motivation for other cities,” notes Jackson, who has spent 16 years in Delhi and is now studying Cultural Anthropology in the North Eastern University in Boston.
The duo, trained at the famous Blake Doyle Academy in the USA, has roped in some volunteers from the University to assist them. They are planning to bring experts from the USA every year to train the trainers in India and create a strong support base here.
With the 30-year-old National Federation being as good as non-existent, the two friends are aware of the political roadblocks they may face. “We want to de-link ourselves from politics and work more for the sport,” says Sahni.
“There are always going to be roadblocks. But they cannot slow us down. Our focus is to whip up on a very good programme. You do not need any federation oversight to run a league. Safe environment for kids, good equipment and coaching — if we can provide that, the players, coaches, sponsors and organisers are going to follow us,” adds Jackson.
Despite being an American, Jackson wants to see baseball in its Indian avatar. “The talent is very much here. India is not just cricket — we have the Hockey India League, we have the Pro Kabaddi League, we have so much. Now is the perfect time. We had the Million Dollar Baby (about baseball talent Rinku Singh) movie which was very helpful.
“Some Americans who come here may say that this should be exactly like the American baseball. But this needs to be an Indian sport, it should not be a copy of someone else's game,” signs off Jackson.
