Japanese coach Hiroki Watanabe has been with Bangladesh baseball since day one. Led by head coach Hiroki, there are currently three more Japanese members in the national team coaching staff, working selflessly without any salary. There is also one key player in the national side who was raised in Japan. The third and final feature of the three-part series on Bangladesh baseball focuses mainly on Hiroki, who has been guiding the men in red and green for 17 years, ever since the sport's introduction in the country:
Japan is ranked top in world baseball and the sport is the most popular one in the country but in Bangladesh it's the opposite.
Hiroki Watanabe used to play baseball since childhood and until his college days before coming to Bangladesh in 2002 to work for the underprivileged children.
He got admitted to University of Dhaka to learn Bangla and co-founded a non-government organization named Ekmattra the following year.
At that time there was zero baseball activity in Bangladesh and hence, no baseball federation or association existed back then.
Ekmattra provides education to the underprivileged children and its workplace was mainly at the stadium para in the Gulistan-Paltan locality.
While running a school under the open sky outside the stadium in 2006, he met Aminul Islam Liton, who knew Hiroki was a baseball player and shared his thoughts on introducing the sport in Bangladesh.
“I love baseball. I also got to know about cricket and I became mad about this sport. Baseball has lot of similarity with cricket. I thought Bangladesh can do well in baseball too. So I liked his [Liton] idea and we started together,” Hiroki told Dhaka Tribune.
Bangladesh Baseball-Softball Association was formed afterwards before it got affiliated by National Sports Council three years later.
It was Aminul Islam Liton who pitched the idea of introducing baseball in Bangladesh, and Hiroki liked the idea straightawayHiroki has been the head coach since then and initially helped BBSA organize competitions and increase the number of players.
It was a tough battle to carry on as it is an unpopular sport in the country, but things improved after Police got interested in baseball.
“In 2017, we officially started working with the Police team. We trained the Police players and brought them to national team. We now have 90% players from Police,” said Hiroki.
Soon afterwards, Bangladesh played their first international match, made debut appearance in West Asia Cup under his guidance and recently jumped to highest 61st place in world rankings.
“Cricket and football are the most popular sports here but there are other sports which have the potential to be popular as well. We are trying to spread the game of baseball across the country and make the national team strong,” said the Japanese.
He added, “We want to reach a respectable position in world baseball. My target is to take Bangladesh among top 12 countries in the world by 2040. It is very difficult but not impossible.”
Hiroki has been doing the job without any wages.
He trained the national team twice a week due to his commitment with Ekmattra.
Recently three more Japanese coaches teamed up with the national side.
Pitching coach Tetsuro Kano and batting and base running coach Hayato Shinno joined in 2020, followed by Yukinori Kurose in 2022.
Last year, Faizan Haque also joined the national team and became a vital player of the side immediately.
Faizan was born in Bangladesh but went to Japan with his parents when he was only eight months old.
He started playing the game at the age of 12, turning out for school and college teams, and also represented a semi-professional team in Japan.
The diplomatic relation between Japan and Bangladesh spans over 50 years.
Hiroki said the Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh has also been interested regarding the development of baseball in the country.
The 42-year old also informed that they have good communication with a Japanese professional baseball team named Yomiuri Giants and getting support from them.
Yomiuri has been providing assistance to the countries where baseball is not popular.
Along with technical support, they have also given equipment to Bangladesh.
Hiroki made no hesitation to admit that there is indeed a Japanese flavor in Bangladesh baseball team that is moving them forward despite financial and infrastructural constraints.
