By Susil Premalal

The Sri Lanka Baseball Association (SLBA) have selected a team of 18 players and four officials for this event.

The Sri Lanka Baseball Team will be led by Old Royalist Akalanka Ranasinghe. His deputy will be Sameera Ratnayake, an Old Boy of Unawatuna Maha Vidyalaya.

A total of 10 countries will take part in the Asian Games baseball competition.

Sri Lanka have been drawn in Group One together with Thailand and Laos.

The other countries competing are Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Pakistan and China.

Sri Lanka will face Laos on August 22 in the first match and in the second match Sri Lanka will face Thailand.

South Korea won the Gold Medal at the 2014 Inchon Asian Games, Chinese Taipei won the Silver Medal and Japan won the Bronze Medal.

Rajith Ratnayake, Secretary, SLBA and Dinesh Perera, Team Manager told the Daily Mirror that Sri Lanka have got the opportunity to take part at the Asian Games after a lapse of 35 years.

Sri Lanka’s first target will be to enter the semi-finals.

According to South Asian Rankings, Pakistan are ranked number one but at the West Asian Baseball Tournament in 2017 Sri Lanka had beaten Pakistan.