Indian baseball team create history in Iran, win first ever Gold medal

India’s baseball team won the Presidential Cup Friendly Baseball Tournament in Iran

The Indian Baseball team created history by winning the Gold medal at the Presidential Cup Friendly Baseball Tournament in Tehran, Iran. India played against the national teams of Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan and defeated all of them comprehensively.

In the final match, they defeated host nation Iran 11-10 to create history and win the gold medal. This is the first instance of India managing to clinch a gold medal at an international baseball tournament.

The teams playing in the Presidential Cup were medal winners from the 12th West Asia Baseball Cup that was held in Karachi, Pakistan, earlier this year. Hosts Pakistan won the gold medal while Iran won the silver. India had to settle for a bronze while Iraq stood fourth.

It was in Pakistan that India made its historic debut as an unranked team in the West Asia baseball showcase. Pakistan, however, decided to skip the Presidential Cup for a tournament in Australia which made Afghanistan a way into the tournament.

In the Presidential Cup, played at the Azadi Stadium of Tehran, India managed to defeat Iran, the same team that defeated them six months back in the West Asia Tournament held in Pakistan. Pitcher Narender Kumar also managed to win the Best Pitcher award in the tournament.

The team members with their gold medals

The Indian contingent that went to the tournament was managed by Ashma Begum, who is extremely proud of the team that created history. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, she said, “Six months back we played our first tournament and now we have managed to win a gold medal in Iran, beating Iran.”

“The irony here, however, is the fact that despite making India proud in a foreign land, there hasn’t been any coverage of our win by the media. The Indian baseball team is really good and they are very hard working. As their manager, I am very proud of the fact that they did so well in Iran. But no one paid any attention to our win. And this is disheartening,” she continued.

The 22-member contingent comprised of: Ajay Kathat (Captain and Coach), Gangesh Kumar Das, Projesh Das, Ashish Barua, Gaurav Sengar, Jitender Kumar, Bhanu Prakash Sharma, Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa, Govinda Sharma, Gunpreet Singh, Narender Kumar, Prakash Kumar, Nimit Kumra, Simrat Singh Gill, Md. Mubashbir Ali, Lokmohun Routray, Yuvraj Singh, Akshay Mishra, Jai Raj Burman, Ashma Begum, Fida Hussain, Altaf Hussain Bhat.