How Virupaksha Reddy Is Bringing About Structural Changes To Boost Participation And Popularity Of Baseball In Maharashtra

Virupaksh Reddy, the Head Sports In-charge of the Sanjivani Group of Schools is one such person that is actively driving the growth of Baseball in the country, specifically in Maharashtra.

New Delhi: Baseball, the working man’s sport of America, is growing in India at a rapid rate. The sport that draws many parallels to Cricket, which is like a religion in the country, has been getting a push in the right direction thanks to the Major League Baseball (MLB) Cup. The Baseball tournament is also helping in bringing the stakeholders that are actively contributing to the growth of Baseball in India to the forefront.

Virupaksh Reddy, the Head Sports In-charge of the Sanjivani Group of Schools is one such person that is actively driving the growth of Baseball in the country, specifically in Maharashtra.

He has been associated with the educational organisation for the last 10 years. Baseball has been part of the educational institutes for the past 20 years almost. His association with the sport started back in 2004, said Reddy, “2004 was the first time when our intercollegiate group, that is, our senior Group started playing baseball. So, from then on, baseball has become popular in our schooling systems sector and even all Sanjivani groups of schools.”

“We started our schooling sector in 2011 with branches in Mumbai. Now we have a total of 6 institutes. All six institutes have baseball as a curriculum from the start. So, each institute has a specialised baseball coach now. So, we now have six coaches for six different schools only for baseball itself.” Said Virupaksha while tracing back the support he received from the Sanjivani Group to help the sport grow in Maharashtra.

Virupaksha talked about his earliest memory of playing Baseball as he recalled, “We started playing back in 2016. That year we participated in a state tournament where our team secured a Medal at the tournament and went on to play at the national tournament.”

The Sanjivani Group has more than 12000 students’ part of their educational institutes who all have Baseball as part of the curriculum. His passion for Baseball has been mirrored and supported by the educational group who has actively helped Virupaksha with Baseball equipment, grounds and even travel allowance for their teams to participate in Baseball tournaments across India.

He went on to talk about the ground facilities in the schools that he exclaimed are fantastic. He revealed now an annual budget of 5-6 lacs is dedicated to providing international standard equipment to the students for Baseball, which is costlier than the equipment of other popular sports such as Cricket or Football.
The faculty at the institutions also ensure the utmost safety of the students is taken into consideration while engaging them in the game to enhance their experience of the sport. “Now the children love playing baseball with good quality international standard equipment at the various branches of the institutions.” said Virupaksha.

In fact, one of the schools of the Sanjivani Group played hosts for the MLB Cup last year in Ahmednagar as part of the Maharashtra leg of the tournament.
During the hard times of the pandemic India On Track (IOT) in association with MLB brought the MLB Cup to India in 2020, which provided children with a much needed outlet and offered them a safe space to participate in Baseball.

Virupaksha spoke glowingly about the previous edition MLB Cup as he said, “The standard of the tournament was really international. Everything was planned perfectly. The kids even started learning many things at a smaller age due to the MLB Cup. It was actually a tournament for the younger kids to help them inculcate skills and interest regarding Baseball at a younger age.”

The main challenge faced by Baseball according to the Head Sport In-charge of Sanjivani Group is the lack of tournaments in the country, a lack of facilities and kids being exposed to the sport much later on in their lives.

The MLB Cup has strived to negate these challenges faced by Baseball as a sport in India. It has had an almost instant impact as only 12 teams participated in the previous edition of the tournament, which has now gone up to 162 teams taking part in the ongoing edition of the MLB Cup. The MLB Cup aims to target the participation of kids aged 12 or younger ideally, as the average age of kids starting to play an organised sport in the country is 14. This is to help them understand the sport during their developmental phase and allow them the time to understand the sport, in turn letting them perfect their skills.

This is testament to how fast Baseball can grow in India and how it can become a hotbed of talent. Virupaksha while mirroring the sentiment signed-off by saying, “Our country breathes Cricket and the basic game of batting and fielding is very similar in both the sports. Baseballers will be unearthed by the work MLB is doing in India and with the help of IOT. Definitely in the coming years Baseball will be there in all the schools and sectors.”