MLB Coaches Train Kids On India's First Professional BaseballField

Several years ago, two childhood friends Raunaq Sahni and Jackson Golden, began Grand Slam Baseball with expectations of crafting the mainly American passtime in India. They worked together with many private and public schools in Delhi to teach kids baseball.

Previously, baseball enthusiasts only had the American Embassy to enjoy the sport. However, not everyone got access because of the high level of security protocols. With about 600 children in its program, Grand Slam Baseball gave an alternative. But something was still missing.

"When we spoke to Major League Baseball, they told us our kids are getting sufficient practice but they need many more games to take it to the next level," says Sahni.

That's when the idea of the 'Field of Dreams' came up. India's first regulation size baseball field.

The field, nestled in the farms in Pushpanjali near Delhi's IGI airport, was opened last week in the presence of around a dozen coaches from MLB. A two-week camp to train not just 100 kids but Indian coaches as well was held under the guidance of their American counterparts.

"The name of the stadium is borrowed from an American movie in which a man has a dream to open a baseball field in his backyard. He believed if you make it, they will come. That's what we believed too and MLB indeed came. We thought the time is right. The talent is available in India," Sahni adds.

Shane Halley, a former Colorado Rockies player and now Head Coach for MLB in China, is one of the many coaches who trained kids at the camp. He agrees that India's affinity to cricket makes Indian kids naturally better at baseball too.

"What we saw here are a lot of athletes. Cricket and Baseball are similar but also very different. But the hand-to-eye coordination of kids here is much better because of it than other countries."

In the age of glamorous sports leagues, Grand Slam Baseball wants a bottoms-up approach, than the other way round. They want to develop enough talent at the grass roots level first before starting a league.

The field, which has become self sustaining, will now hold practice for the kids under their program and will be leased for corporate events on weekends.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BASEBALL TRAINING PROGRAM