Softball: Walsh - Olympics or bust for women

The international future of New Zealand women's softball will be in the hands of the players chosen for the Olympic Games qualifying tournament in Taiwan in March, according to coach Mike Walsh.

Walsh, national coaching director and former successful New Zealand men's team coach, took over the women's team four months ago following disappointing performances at the last two World Series.

He said that unless the team, to be named today, earned a place at the 2000 Sydney Olympics by winning the Asia-Oceania region qualifying tournament, New Zealand could find themselves in the wilderness when it came to international play.

"If we don't get in [the Olympics] then we will struggle for a long time," Walsh said.

"It would be difficult to get games against international competition. That would make it harder to earn back the respect and backing of the Sports Foundation.

"The foundation has been wonderful to softball over the years, especially to the women's team, but its backing is performance-based and we have lost that backing through not performing."

From 1972 to 1990 the New Zealand women were a major force in world softball, always finishing in the top three at the World Series, including winning the title in 1982. In 1994 they slumped to sixth and last year finished 11th.

Hitting was a problem in both those disappointing years but Walsh was happy with the batting he saw at the national tournament in Palmerston North and with the way prospective New Zealand team members were defending.

Final entries have not been confirmed for the qualifying tournament but the main, probably only, obstacle for New Zealand will be Taiwan.

Walsh is confident New Zealand can win the Taiwan tournament, which runs from March 16 to 21, and is unlikely to experiment with too many new players. - NZPA