Dato Sri Abdul Karim with all corporate sponsors and official partners of BPIT 2024
KUCHING, Malaysia /PRNewswire/ — The Kuching Pickleball Association (KPA) reveals its lineup of high-profile sponsors and partners for the Borneo Pickleball International Tournament (BPIT) 2024, which is confirmed for 8–14 October 2024 at PIKABOL, Asia’s biggest purpose-built indoor pickleball court in Kuching.
BPIT 2024 is fully supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak (MTCP) and the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Sarawak (MYSED). Corporate sponsors and official partners for BPIT 2024 are:
Gold Sponsor Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB)
Official Partners a. Business Events Sarawak (BESarawak) in collaboration with The Hills Kuching and Dayak Daily (CSR Programme Partner) b. Business Events Sarawak (Community Outreach Partner as Exclusive Strategic Advisor of BPIT 2024) c. CPH Travel and Tours (Travel Agency Partner) d. Hemisphere Corporation – Grand Margherita Hotel and Riverside Majestic Hotel (Hotel Partner) e. Malaysia Airlines (Airline Partner) f. Sarawak Tourism Board (Promotional Partner)
The Hon. Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak and Minister for Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development in Sarawak: “We need more innovative ideas and collaboration similar to the one between the Kuching Pickleball Association and their partners to develop their sport of interest and make it a consideration to enter contests such as Sukan Malaysia (Malaysia Games) and Sukan Sarawak (Sarawak Games). From the list of sponsors and partners, the association has garnered strong support from diverse industries and organisations. Thank you to the organiser, sponsors and partners for bringing Sarawak one step closer to being a sports powerhouse.”
Amelia Roziman, CEO of BESarawak: “On top of advising the Kuching Pickleball Association on community building and event development, we are collaborating to include the ‘Books Build Legacy’ book donation drive as the official corporate social responsibility programme for the tournament. Dayak Daily and The Hills Kuching have kindly volunteered to collaborate with us to collect 2,000 children’s books in support of rural primary and secondary schools in Sarawak. We hope that players, spectators, and members of the public can help us reach our target.”
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Ruslan Bujang, President of the Kuching Pickleball Association: “BPIT’s sponsors and partners share our vision of growing the sporting community, working together to support and nurture athletes and enthusiasts alike. They will contribute to the success of the tournament and shape the future of pickleball in Sarawak and Malaysia. Our goal is for pickleball to advance to international standards, which would mark Sarawak as an innovator in sports development.”
Borneo International Pickleball Tournament is the largest pickleball competition in Malaysia and Borneo with an expected turnout of 1500 spectators and 500 players from the region competing for a prize pool of RM20,000. The tournament will feature three categories:
A) Team Event a) 5 subcategories: Mixed Doubles, Women’s Doubles, Men’s Doubles, Veteran Doubles, Men’s Singles b) Maximum 48 teams c) Registration fee of RM1,200 per team d) Prizes between RM1,250 (including medal) to RM10,000 (including trophy and medal) e) Prizes from Skechers and Starbucks
B) Individual Event – Veteran (any gender combination) a) Maximum 24 players b) Registration fee of RM100 per player c) Prizes between RM125 to RM1,000 (all inclusive of medals) d) Prizes from Skechers and Starbucks
C) Individual Event – Novice (any gender combination) a) Maximum 24 pairs b) Registration fee of RM50 per pair c) Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are up for grabs d) Prizes from Skechers and Starbucks
20 lucky draws from both Skechers and Starbucks will be open to all players and registered spectators on the last day of the tournament. Today, the Kuching Pickleball Association has reached 80% of its target registration with players from Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Registration closes on 31 August 2024. Teams and individuals wishing to join must register for a Pickleball Global ID at https://pickleball.global/. ID registration is free and accumulated points at BPIT 2024 can be used for global tournaments. For regular Tournament updates, visit https://www.facebook.com/BorneoPickleball/ (@BorneoPickleball).
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ABOUT BPIT 2024 Borneo Pickleball International Tournament is Malaysia and Borneo’s largest international pickleball competition organised by the Kuching Pickleball Association. Teams and individuals wishing to join must register for a Pickleball Global ID at https://pickleball.global/. Registration closes on August 31, 2024. For full details, visit https://pickleball.global/compete/borneo-pickleball-international-tournament–individual-event–1608/about
ABOUT BUSINESS EVENTS SARAWAK BESarawak was established in 2006 by the Sarawak Government as a non-profit convention and exhibition bureau to promote Sarawak for national and international business events. Support and services include, but are not limited to, developing and bidding for business events of interest, funding assistance and crafting itineraries. BESarawak is also known as ‘Biro Konvensyen Sarawak’ (Bahasa Malaysia) or 砂拉越会议局 (Mandarin). Visit www.businesseventssarawak.com for more information.
ABOUT BUSINESS EVENTS’ LEGACY IMPACT ‘Legacy impact’ refers to the long-term, positive benefits that business events bring to sectors, communities, trade and investment, the environment, and governance. Sarawak is the first in Malaysia and Borneo to focus on legacy impact as a sustainable method of measuring the value of business events. Business events are listed as one of six sectors in the Sarawak Government’s Post COVID-19 Development Strategy to achieve economic prosperity, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability by 2030.
Callie Maddox, Miami University
For most baseball fans, hope springs eternal on Opening Day.
Many of those fans – more than you might think – are women.
A 2024 survey found that women made up 39% of those who attended or watched Major League Baseball games, and franchises have taken notice. The Philadelphia Phillies offer behind-the-scenes tours and clinics for their female fans, while the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees offer fantasy camps that are geared to women.
The number of women working professionally in baseball has also grown. Kim Ng made history in 2020 when she became the first woman general manager of an MLB team, the Miami Marlins. As of 2023, women made up 30% of central office professional staff and 27% of team senior administration jobs. In addition, 43 women held coaching and managerial jobs across the major and minor league levels – a 95% increase in just two years.
As a fan and scholar of the game, I’m happy to see more women watching baseball and working in the industry. But it still nags at me that the girls and women who play baseball don’t get much recognition, particularly in the U.S.
Women take the field
In the U.S., baseball is seen as a sport for boys and men. Girls and women, on the other hand, are supposed to play softball, which uses a bigger ball and has a smaller field.
It wasn’t always this way.
Women have been playing baseball in the U.S. since at least the 1860s. At women’s colleges such as Smith and Vassar, students organized baseball teams as early as 1866. The first professional women’s baseball team was known as the Dolly Vardens, a team of Black players formed in Philadelphia in 1867. Barnstorming teams, known as Bloomer Girls, traveled across the country to play against men’s teams from the 1890s to the 1930s, providing the players with independence and the means to make a living.
American women have been playing baseball since at least the 1860s.Ullstein Bild/Getty Images
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, founded by Philip K. Wrigley in 1943, also offered women the chance to play professionally. The league, which inspired the 1992 film “A League of Their Own,” enforced rigid norms of femininity expected at the time. Players were required to wear skirts and makeup while playing and were fined if they engaged in any behavior deemed “unladylike.” Teams were open only to white women and light-skinned Latinas. Black women were not allowed to play, a policy that reflected the segregation of the Jim Crow era.
Three Black women – Connie Morgan, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson and Toni Stone – did play in the otherwise male Negro Leagues in the early 1950s. However, their skills were often downplayed by claims that they’d been signed to generate ticket sales and boost interest in the struggling league.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, and by the late-1950s women’s participation in baseball had dwindled.
Girls funneled into softball
Softball was invented in Chicago in 1887 as an indoor alternative to baseball.
Originally aimed at both men and women, it eventually became the accepted sport for girls and women due to its smaller field, larger ball and underhand pitching style – aspects deemed suitable for the supposedly weaker and more delicate female body.
The passage of Title IX in 1972 further pushed the popularization of fast-pitch softball, as participation in high school and college increased markedly. In 1974, the National Organization for Women filed a lawsuit against Little League Baseball because the league’s charter excluded girls from playing. The lawsuit was successful, and girls were permitted to join teams.
In response, Little League created Little League Softball as a way to funnel girls into softball instead of baseball. As political scientist Jennifer Ring has pointed out, this decision reinforced the gendered division of each sport and “cemented the post-Title IX segregated masculinity of baseball.”
Girls can still play baseball, but most are encouraged to eventually switch to softball if they want to pursue college scholarships. If they want to keep playing baseball, they have to constantly confront stubborn cultural beliefs and assumptions that they should be playing softball instead.
Instead of encouraging girls to play baseball, Little League launched Little League Softball to direct girls away from the sport.Chris Ryan/Corbis via Getty Images
A global game
You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. fields a national women’s baseball team that competes in the Women’s Baseball World Cup. But they receive scant media attention and remain unknown to most baseball fans.
In a 2019 article published in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, I argued that the U.S. has experienced inconsistent success on the global stage because of a lack of infrastructure, limited resources and persistent gendered assumptions that hamper the development of women’s baseball. Other countries such as Japan, Canada and Australia have established solid pathways that allow girls and women to pursue baseball from the youth level through high school and beyond.
That being said, opportunities for girls to play baseball are increasing in the U.S. thanks to the efforts of organizations such as Baseball for All and DC Girls Baseball.
Approximately 1,300 girls play high school baseball, and a handful of young women play on men’s college baseball teams each year. In recent years, numerous women’s collegiate club baseball teams have been established; there’s even an annual tournament to crown a national champion.
Japanese pitcher Yukari Isozaki competes during the 2010 Women’s Baseball World Cup in Venezuela.AP Photo/Fernando Llano
Pro league in the works
Momentum continues to build.
MLB recently appointed Veronica Alvarez as its first girls baseball ambassador, who will oversee development programs such as the Trailblazers Series and the Elite Development Invitational. A new documentary film, “See Her Be Her,” is touring the country to celebrate the growth of women’s baseball and raise awareness of the challenges these athletes face.
Perhaps most significantly, the Women’s Pro Baseball League announced that it is planning to start play in summer 2026 with six teams located in the northeastern U.S. Over 500 players from 11 countries have registered with the league, with a scouting camp and player draft scheduled for later this year.
Should the league have success, it will mark a revitalization of women’s professional baseball in the U.S., a nod to the rich history of the women’s game and a commitment to securing opportunities for the girls and women who continue to defy cultural norms to play the game they love.Callie Maddox, Associate Professor of Sport Leadership and Management, Miami University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Sleeves Tells Us The Best Way to Begin a Pickleball Point!
The Senior Pickleball Report emphasizes the importance of preparation for consistent performance in pickleball. It offers resources and updates for the senior pickleball community.
The Senior Pickleball Report emphasizes the importance of preparation for consistent performance in pickleball. It offers resources and updates for the senior pickleball community.
The latest chapter of the Senior Pickleball Report presented to you by Mike Sleeves Sliwa… Get the latest updates and information on the rapidly growing sport of pickleball, specifically designed for the senior community aged 50+. Check out Sleeve’s Senior Pickleball Report on YouTube to stay informed and up-to-date with the ever-changing world of pickleball.… Read more: Fifty Dollar D.I.Y. Pickleball Court?
Randy and Chad Miller face serious fraud charges after allegedly defrauding investors out of $300 million in their failed sports complex, revealing a cautionary tale for investors.
Excitement is building for pickleball fans and sports enthusiasts alike as the highly anticipated documentary Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story is set to premiere on April 11, 2025, on truTV. This film captures the thrilling evolution of pickleball from a casual pastime to a burgeoning professional sport, offering an inside look at a fierce power struggle… Read more: Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story Premieres April 11 on truTV
Get the latest updates and information on the rapidly growing sport of pickleball, specifically designed for the senior community aged 50+. Check out Sleeve’s Senior Pickleball Report on YouTube to stay informed and up-to-date with the ever-changing world of pickleball. Join the community and stay ahead of the game.
The Senior Pickleball Report emphasizes the importance of preparation for consistent performance in pickleball. It offers resources and updates for the senior pickleball community.
The latest chapter of the Senior Pickleball Report presented to you by Mike Sleeves Sliwa… Get the latest updates and information on the rapidly growing sport of pickleball, specifically designed for the senior community aged 50+. Check out Sleeve’s Senior Pickleball Report on YouTube to stay informed and up-to-date with the ever-changing world of pickleball.… Read more: Fifty Dollar D.I.Y. Pickleball Court?
Randy and Chad Miller face serious fraud charges after allegedly defrauding investors out of $300 million in their failed sports complex, revealing a cautionary tale for investors.
Excitement is building for pickleball fans and sports enthusiasts alike as the highly anticipated documentary Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story is set to premiere on April 11, 2025, on truTV. This film captures the thrilling evolution of pickleball from a casual pastime to a burgeoning professional sport, offering an inside look at a fierce power struggle… Read more: Dreambreaker: A Pickleball Story Premieres April 11 on truTV
Get the latest updates and information on the rapidly growing sport of pickleball, specifically designed for the senior community aged 50+. Check out Sleeve’s Senior Pickleball Report on YouTube to stay informed and up-to-date with the ever-changing world of pickleball. Join the community and stay ahead of the game.
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Callie Maddox, Associate Professor of Sport Leadership and Management, Miami University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
