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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
VETERAN American baseball development coach Bart Bratcher is in Zimbabwe for a nationwide tour that will see him visit each province for two-day coaching clinics which began in Bulawayo.

Bratcher kicked off the programme in the city at Mandwandwe High School on Wednesday.

He was assisted in conducting the training clinics by Yesuke Takihara from Japan and Yasah Simango, who is the Zimbabwe Baseball Association (ZBA) development officer.

Baseball coaching clinic at Mandwandwe (1)

The American has over four decades of coaching experience at high school level and runs Jet Baseball, a club that nurtures young players in Austin, Texas.

The 73-year-old coach has made several visits to Zimbabwe before, and the ZBA reckons Bratcher’s visit will be hugely beneficial for the country.

“The programme is going to be done nationally.

From Bulawayo we will be going to Masvingo and Mutare as well as other provinces.

This programme has become more of an annual event where we have coach Bratcher coming in to take us through the current trends in baseball,” said ZBA vice president Eldon Mudzingwa.

“The programme encourages participation. It also equips players and coaches with new technical skills that are vital for the growth and upliftment of the sport,” he added.

Zimbabwe was mainly a softball playing nation for a decade after independence, but in 1990 Malcolm Burne introduced baseball in the country, as president of the association.

In 2007, Zimbabwe’s baseball and softball bodies split and the country participated in the All-Africa Games in 1999, 2003 and 2007 where they won bronze medals in all three editions.

In 2019, Zimbabwe participated in the Africa Baseball Championship and again won bronze.

— @innocentskizoe