Dubai-based Baseball United, the first-ever professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent, has announced that Karachi, Pakistan was awarded the second franchise in league history.
The team will be called the Karachi Monarchs, with both the Karachi “K” and a bejeweled crown serving as its primary brand marks.
Dubai baseball league announces new team
The Monarchs name honours Karachi’s leadership role as Pakistan’s industrial, economic, and financial capital, while also paying homage to the city’s passionate love for baseball’s bat and ball counterpart: cricket.
The Karachi Kings are one of the founding franchises of the Pakistan Super League, the nation’s premier cricket league.
Monarchs was also the moniker of one of the United States’ most successful professional baseball teams of all-time – the Kansas City Monarchs.
Kash Shaikh, President, CEO, and Co-Owner of Baseball United, said: “It’s an honour to welcome the great city of Karachi into the Baseball United family.
“This city is both historic, and forward-looking. It’s the commercial, cultural, and cosmopolitan heartbeat of Pakistan. It’s as large as New York City but has a median age that’s fifteen years younger. And those young people love their sports.
“Our Baseball United team is so excited about the opportunity to connect with all of them as we work to inspire more and more Pakistanis to fall in love with the game of baseball.”
Karachi is the 12th largest city in the world, with a metropolitan area of nearly 20 million people. Like Mumbai, it sits along the Arabian Sea, and is the country’s main seaport.
The Karachi Monarchs and Mumbai Cobras will compete against each other, as well as two other soon-to-be-named professional baseball franchises at Baseball United’s Dubai Showcase in November of this year.
The Monarchs and Cobras are projected to be the league’s biggest rivals, following in the footsteps of the Pakistani and Indian cricket teams that regularly draw hundreds of millions of viewers to their international matches.
John Miedreich, Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations and Co-Owner, Baseball United, said: “In the United States, we have the Yankees versus the Red Sox. In South Asia, they have India versus Pakistan.
“We’ve seen the passion and pageantry that surrounds these nations’ cricket matches. Now, we can’t wait to see all that drama unfold on the baseball diamond.”
Baseball United will name the Monarchs’ Honorary GM and Manager in the coming days. The two additional Baseball United Showcase franchises will be named over the next two months.
Following the announcements of all four franchises, Baseball United will conduct its first-ever draft, selecting Showcase players from its official Player Pool.
The new franchise announcement comes on the heels of Baseball United’s recently inked partnership with Pakistan Federation Baseball, the country’s governing body for the sport, and the most successful baseball federation within South Asia.
The agreement will enable the two organisations to jointly grow the game of baseball across Pakistan and within Pakistani communities worldwide.
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