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| Country | India |
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| Governing body | Amateur Baseball Federation of India |
| National team(s) | Men Women |
| First played | Early 1940s |
National competitions | |
International competitions | |
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Baseball is played in local clubs, schools and at the university level in India.
Baseball was played in Manipur as early as World War II when the US Army Air Force flew supplies to China over the Himalayas, known as "Flying the Hump", and the locals learned the game from the troops stationed there. [1] (See also Sports in Manipur#Baseball).
The Amateur Baseball Federation of India was founded in 1983 and India's first national baseball championship occurred in 1985, taking place in New Delhi. That same year, it joined both the International Baseball Federation along with the Baseball Federation of Asia. In 2006, MLB International sent Envoy coaches to India to train local coaches and players in partnership with First Pitch, an India-based grass-roots baseball organisation. [2] [3]
The first ballpark in India was opened on 5 February 2017 at a farmhouse on the Gurgaon-Delhi border by Grand Slam Baseball and recognised by WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. [4] Built by social entrepreneur and baseball enthusiast Raunaq Sahni, India's first and only regulation-size baseball ground is named Field of Dreams in homage to the 1989 American film of the same name. [5] [4] Sahni had set up Grand Slam Baseball in 2013 as a grass-roots sports initiative to help organise tournaments and coaching programmes for youths across the country. Before the birth of Grand Slam Baseball, the sport was mostly played among expats and among government school players. Grand Slam Baseball changed this by starting pay-for-play programmes at elite private schools in Delhi-NCR while also sponsoring an equal number of government school players. [6] [7] [8]
In July 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced plans to open an office in New Delhi to promote the growth of baseball in India. The league also announced to plans to stream one regular season game a week on Facebook in India. [9] MLB also stated that it would relaunch Million Dollar Arm holding tryouts in India between September and December 2019. MLB also announced the launch of First Pitch, a grassroots program for primary school children from 300 schools across New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai to learn baseball through workshops by MLB coaches. [10] MLB has said that there may be collaboration with BCCI to increase the spread of both cricket and baseball. [11]
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In 2007, struggling MLB agent J.B. Bernstein decided to start a competition in India titled Million Dollar Arm, a talent search for the best throwing arms in India. He gained his inspiration after watching ESPN's broadcast of a cricket match featuring bowlers that bowled at speeds as high as 150 km/h (93 mph) and realising that India was one of the largest untapped environments for baseball. Despite being inspired by cricketers, the two winners were 19-year-old javelin throwers Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel. Although he did not reach the million-dollar mark, Singh won US$100,000 for the fastest delivery of the contest and Patel won US$5,000. They were also invited to the United States to train and try out for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. Eventually, both pitchers were signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates organisation and became the first two Indians to play professional baseball.
Patel ended up having a successful 2009 season for Pirates' Gulf Coast League team, finishing with a 1–0 record and a 1.42 ERA in 6+1⁄3 innings pitched. His 2010 season was not successful, with his ERA going up to 8.59 in 7+1⁄3 innings. He was released after the season and returned to India to teach baseball and prepare kids for subsequent seasons of Million Dollar Arm.
The screen rights to their story were purchased in 2009, and in 2014 Disney released the film titled Million Dollar Arm . It made $3.9 crore off a budget of $2.5 crore.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the principal national governing body of cricket in India. Its headquarters is situated at the Cricket Centre in Churchgate, Mumbai. The BCCI is the wealthiest governing body of cricket in the world. The BCCI is involved in talent development through grassroots programs and cricket academies. Its initiatives include infrastructure development, coaching, and player welfare programs designed to maintain and enhance India's competitive performance internationally.
Ravishankar Jayadritha Shastri is an Indian cricket commentator, former professional cricketer and head coach of the India national cricket team. As a player, he played for the India national cricket team between 1981 and 1992 in both Test matches and One Day Internationals. Although he started his career as a left arm spin bowler, he later transformed into a batting all-rounder. Shastri was a member of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. He won the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award at the Indian cricket team annual award show NAMAN in 2024.
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Ajaysinhji Jadeja, known as Ajay Jadeja, is an Indian former professional cricketer. He was a regular member of the Indian cricket team in the One Day International (ODI) format between 1992 and 2000. He played fifteen Test matches and 196 ODIs for India. He also occasionally captained the India national cricket team. He was part of the Indian squad which won the 1995 Asia Cup. Presently, Jadeja is working with the Afghanistan cricket team as the team mentor.
Anjum Chopra is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer. She started playing cricket at the age of 9. She played her first friendly match with the college girls' team at the inter-college level, scoring 20 runs and taking 2 wickets. Later the same year she was selected to play for New Delhi in the under−15 tournament.
The Indian Cricket League (ICL) was a short-lived cricket league that ran from 2007 to 2009. It was sponsored by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, a media company. The ICL had two seasons, featuring four international teams and nine domestic teams from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The matches were played in the Twenty20 format, which was new and exciting at the time. A 50-over tournament was also held in early 2008.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as the TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's Twenty20 (T20) cricket league held annually in India. Founded by the BCCI (the Board of Control for Cricket in India) in 2007, the league features ten state or city-based franchise teams. Most popular and biggest cricket league, it usually takes place during the summer for 2 months, between March and May each year. It has an exclusive window in the ICC Future Tours Programme, resulting in fewer international cricket tours occurring during the IPL seasons.
Delhi Capitals, formerly Delhi Daredevils, are a professional franchise cricket team based in Delhi that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is jointly owned by the GMR Group and the JSW Sports. The team's home ground is Arun Jaitley Stadium, located in New Delhi. The team is captained by Rishabh Pant and coached by Ricky Ponting. The Capitals appeared in their first IPL final in 2020 against Mumbai Indians under former captain Shreyas Iyer.
Deccan Chargers is a defunct IPL franchise which was based in the city of Hyderabad. The franchise was one of the eight inaugural members of the IPL in 2008 and winner of 2009. It was owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd. After finishing at the bottom of the points table in the first season, they won the second season held in South Africa in 2009 under the captaincy of former Australian wicket-keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist. Gilchrist was the captain of the team for the first three seasons of the IPL with Rohit Sharma as his deputy. From the fourth season, Kumar Sangakkara led the team and Cameron White played as his deputy. The team was coached by former Australian cricketer Darren Lehmann.
India has a history of sports dating back to the Vedic period. Cricket is the most popular spectator sport; it generates the highest television viewership, with the Indian Premier League (IPL) being the most-followed league in the country. Football has also gained popularity, with the Indian Super League (ISL) being the highest level of domestic football, and the national team winning multiple gold medals at the Asian and South Asian Games. Additional football accomplishments include India having reached the Groupstage of the 1960 Olympics, qualified for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and won the SAFF Championship. Other sports include kabaddi, badminton, tennis, and athletics, with kho-kho becoming the fourth-most viewed sport. India has also had success in field hockey, winning the World Cup and multiple medals in the Olympic Games. Sports such as golf, rugby, boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, motorsport, wrestling, and basketball are featured throughout the country.
Rinku Singh Rajput is an Indian professional wrestler and former professional baseball player. He is also known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Veer Mahaan, or simply Veer.
Dinesh Kumar Patel is an Indian right-handed baseball pitcher who played in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. Along with Rinku Singh, he was the first Indian player ever to sign a contract with a major American baseball team. Neither Patel nor Singh had ever thrown a baseball before beating over 37,000 competitors in The Million Dollar Arm, an Indian reality television show designed to find new baseball talent.
Pune Warriors India was a franchise Twenty20 cricket team that represented the city of Pune in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The team was one of two IPL franchises from the Indian state of Maharashtra, the other being Mumbai Indians. It was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside the also-defunct Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The team was owned by Sahara Group Sports Limited, a group company of the Indian business conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar. The team's home ground was the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium located in Gahunje, Pune.
The 2014 Indian Premier League season was the seventh season of the Indian Premier League, a professional Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament featured eight teams, one fewer than in 2013 after the withdrawal of the Pune Warriors India, and was held from 16 April 2014 to 1 June 2014. The opening ceremony was held in the UAE on 15 April 2014. Kolkata Knight Riders won the tournament, defeating Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets with Manish Pandey declared the man of the match in the final. The average attendance for the tournament was 31,751.
Akshar Rajeshbhai Patel, also spelled as Axar Patel, is an Indian international cricketer who plays for the Indian cricket team in all formats of the game as a All-rounder. He also plays for Gujarat in domestic cricket and for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League. He is a left-handed batter and slow left-arm orthodox bowler. He was an integral part of the Indian squad which won the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The Manipur cricket team is a cricket team that represents the state of Manipur in Indian domestic competitions. In July 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the team as one of the nine new sides that would compete in domestic tournaments for the 2018–19 season, including the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Shiv Sunder Das was appointed as the team's coach.
The 2018–19 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was the tenth season of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, a Twenty20 cricket tournament in India. It was contested by the 37 domestic cricket teams of India, with eight teams in Group A. The group stage started on 21 February 2019, with the top two teams progressing to the Super League section of the competition.
The Sikkim cricket team is a cricket team that represents the state of Sikkim in Indian domestic competitions. In July 2018, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the team as one of the nine new sides that would compete in domestic tournaments for the 2018–19 season, including the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy. However, prior to the start of the tournament, the team did not have a ground to play first-class cricket on. Unlike some of the other new teams, Sikkim decided to enter their first List A competition with a team made up entirely of home-grown players. Ahead of the 2018–19 season, Sanjeev Sharma was appointed as the team's coach.
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