In this exclusive interview with Completesports.com’s JAMES AGBEREBI, Secretary General of the Nigerian Baseball and Softball Association (NBSA), Kehinde Laniyan, discusses the origin of the sport in Nigeria and how they have been faring in the country.
Laniyan, who is also the Tournament Director for the Little League West Africa Region Tournament, also talks enthusiastically about his association’s objectives with baseball and softball in Nigeria, and also with the international tournament billed for Lagos in April 2023.
Excerpts…
Can you tell us briefly about the origin of baseball and softball?
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the US. Of course, there are other popular sports in the United States like basketball and American football, but baseball is their pastime. And that’s the reason why you will hardly find many American presidents who have never played baseball.
It is played basically in the US, and also in Japan, China and most of Southern America, it is very popular there. You can call it the American version of cricket because it is a stick-and-ball game too – in cricket you use the stick to hit the ball. But this time around in cricket they use a flat bat and in baseball, we use a round bat. So it becomes very tricky when you want to hit the round ball with a round bat.
Secretary General, NBSA, Kehinde Laniyan
Looking at baseball and softball, are we looking at two sports rolled into one?
Yes, it is two sports rolled in one, and just like baseball, softball is also popular. The little difference between baseball and softball is that the ball in softball is a little bigger and the rules are a bit different. But the template and the pitch are almost very similar.
The speed with which the game is played is a bit different, and the way they throw the ball is different. So those are the little difference you find in them. In Nigeria and many parts of Africa our girls play softball and our boys play baseball. But in the US and other parts of the world, both men and women play both baseball and softball together.
And talking about Nigeria, Can you give a brief history of the sport in Nigeria?
The sport has been in Nigeria before 1966 because there were some American Peace Corps in the country. But when the Nigerian civil war came the Peace Corps left Nigeria and the sport died a natural death. In those days you have teams moving from Lagos to Ibadan to play. People come to Lagos to play.
In 1989, a group of Nigerians who have been in other sports – people like General Ishola Williams, Dr Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, former Stock Exchange Director General and others – came together and revived the sport, and by 1992 the first baseball park in the whole of Africa, south of Sahara was built in Ilorin. It’s a standard baseball park by any standard you can think of, so they started raising teams.
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Since this is a sport that has been around for a long time in Nigeria, which major tournaments has the country taken part in?
Nigeria has featured at the All Africa Games twice, at the 1999 Johannesburg Games and 2003 COJA Games and Nigeria won silver medals at both competitions. And Nigeria has also played in the Olympic qualification because baseball was also at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. So Nigeria played qualification at the African level.
How is the sport faring in Nigeria today?
We are not satisfied with how the sport is faring in Nigeria, we want it to be more popular and that is why every year we organise tournaments. In fact, in the last National Sports Festival in Asaba, baseball and softball were there and we are hoping the sport will also be in the next Sports Festival and the Youth Sports Festival too.
Also, another version of baseball is in the Youth Olympics that is coming up in Dakar, Senegal in 2026. And the qualification for that Dakar, Senegal tournament will be in Cape Coast, Ghana in May, and Nigeria will be part of it.
We are not satisfied and we want people to know about it because Nigeria should not be all about football. People should be able to explore their God-given talents virtually in all the sports we can think of, and thank God it’s also a professional sport.
Outside Nigeria, it’s a professional sport and they are being paid big money in US and Japan. And let me even tell you that a few months ago the first black African was drafted into professional baseball in Japan, and he is a Nigerian. His name is Ihine Itua who joined Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.
And like I told you, we have baseball clubs in Lagos, Ibadan, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kaduna, Kano and Akwa Ibom. They are in different places, but we project that baseball should be among the first three sports in Nigeria. When you take football and basketball, the next should be baseball, so that’s our target.
How is the acceptability of baseball and softball at the grassroots level in Nigeria?
We are talking to schools and primary schools are the first targets. That’s why baseball is in about 10 schools in Lagos, seven in Ibadan and Ilorin is the Mecca of baseball in Nigeria. So many schools in Ilorin are into baseball and softball. Also in Abuja, there are many schools involved in baseball and softball.
How has funding the sport in Nigeria been?
It is more self-funding from schools, communities and parents. But in Lagos, they have the Baseball and Softball Association with all the board members. We have it in Oyo State too, in Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kwara. I can name all those States for you where the sports council, schools and communities are involved in the organisation of the sport. But often we rely on self-funding from schools, parents and communities.
Let’s talk about tournaments. You have one coming up in April. Tell us more about it.
The Little League International West African Championship will be a serious eye-opener. This is because we will have like five countries in west Africa that have already signed on for it and they will be in Lagos from April 11 to 17.
And we are going to run it for five years. Every year west African countries will come to Lagos for the tournament.
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