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RI heads into Asian baseball finals eyeing Asian Games spot
Indonesia is setting modest hopes of finishing in the top five in its debut in Division 1 of the upcoming Asian Baseball Championship in Japan
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Indonesia is setting modest hopes of finishing in the top five in its debut in Division 1 of the upcoming Asian Baseball Championship in Japan.
The team secured the ticket to the championship after winning Division 2 of the Asian Cup qualifying round in Bangkok last week.
“It’d be great if our team makes it into the top five,” Rosdy Nur, an official from the Indonesian Baseball and Softball Association (PERBASASI), told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, after a welcoming ceremony for the triumphant return home of the Indonesian team.
Indonesia will compete against Thailand, the Philippines and host Japan, at the championship in Narita, which runs from July 27 to 29, with the winner advancing to the semifinals.
China, Taiwan and South Korea have automatically qualified for the final-four round, which will be staged in Sapporo from Aug. 1 to 3.
Last year’s runner-up South Korea has won the event seven times, while Taiwan has clinched it four times.
For Indonesia, it will be tough test early on the Narita round. While world-class Japan has won the Asian championship three times, in 2003, 2005 and 2007, Thailand and the Philippines are seen as Indonesia’s strongest opponents from the Southeast Asian region.
The Philippines, which finished fourth at the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship, won the Asian trophy in 1954.
With a win over Japan highly unlikely, Indonesia will hedge its bets with either Thailand or the Philippines, to finish in at least sixth spot, with the reward of a place in the Asian Games in Guangzhou in 2010.
The Indonesian team’s deputy captain and pitcher, Syaiful Noer, was upbeat about the prospects.
“We’ve got a chance of beating Thailand and the Philippines,” he said.
“Our team is currently more solid than theirs, and our technical abilities are slightly better.”
But manager and head coach Kazuto Nonaka warned there was still room for improvement among the team’s 18 players. “Not all of them are playing at the same level of skill,” he said.
“We need to organize another selection before setting off for training on June 20.”
Syaiful said the selection would motivate the players.
The weeklong selection process will give the team only three weeks to train, while Nonaka said the ideal training should run for three to four months prior to the event.
The championship has been sanctioned by the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) as a qualifying tour for the Asian Games, with six spots up for grabs.
During last week’s Asian Cup in Bangkok, Indonesia beat Cambodia 6-0, Myanmar 11-1 and Hong Kong 7-2 to win Group B, before beating Sri Lanka 7-4 in the semifinals and overcoming Group A winner Pakistan 3-2 in the final.
Pakistan topped Group A with a 20-0 win over Malaysia, 10-0 over Sri Lanka and 9-4 over Thailand, and beat Hong Kong 7-2 in the semis.
