Imphal, Nov. 6: The first pitch of the United States-Manipur Baseball Project formally kicked off at Khuman Lampak main stadium yesterday.

Two experts from America’s Major League Baseball International (MLBI) will train around 100 players and 30 coaches from the state during the 10-day camp. The programme is part of the United States-Manipur Baseball Project’s Manipur camp.

The first pitch will comprise a series of baseball camps in Imphal, Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Goa, Chandigarh and Chennai for local baseball players and coaches. The camps are being organised with support from the US embassy in India.

The coaches from MLBI, Jeff Brueggemann and David Palese, will train the participants of the Manipur camp for only for 10 days and once they leave for other venues, local coaches will take over the training. Palese is an assistant baseball coach at Rochester University in New York and has conducted a series of camps across the globe.

Brueggemann was a pitcher for six years with Minnesota Twins and has coached the Chinese Junior National team.

The US Department of State is bearing the entire cost of the shipping the equipment to different states in India, while the public affairs office of the US embassy has sponsored the coaches’ stay in India.

Manipur will be the main camp for the first pitch in India.

Muriel Peters, the chairman of the first pitch camp in the state, said: “Every good project starts with a good dream. Somi and I have dreamt of first pitch for Manipur. I mooted the idea of first pitch in Manipur during my visit to the state two years ago.” L. Somi Roy is the executive director of the first phase of the camp.

Talking to the media about the camp, Roy said that a baseball park would be developed in the state within the next three to five years. He said smaller parks would also be developed in various parts of the state to attract more youths to the game.

Brueggemann said it was his first experience in India. “The game of baseball needs a good amount of skill rather than strength. The prospect of baseball in Manipur depends on how much the people would love the game,” he said, adding that for first pitch, the journey was more important than the result.

Palese said he had never seen such enthusiasm among Manipuri boys and girls.

Food and civil supplies minister Th. Devendra and youth affairs and sports minister Govindas Konthoujam, who were present at the inaugural session of today, also assured all help from state government’s side.

They also hoped that the camp would help bring out many a professional baseball players from the state.