Five young players, Danjel Aquilina, Max Borg, Sami Elamin, Gabriel Grixti and Nicholas Micallef, along with their coach Charles Attard, will be attending the 20th Annual World Children's Baseball Fair, in Tokyo, Japan, between July 29 and August 6.

This is the second time that the Malta Baseball & Softball Association (MABS) has been invited to the fair.

The five players were selected from among a good number of other young ballplayers who have just participated in the Cadets National League.

Those selected have been preparing for the last two months, practising regularly at the Mellieħa Sports Complex ahead of the big day in Tokyo.

American Major League home-run king, Hank Aaron, and Japan baseball legend, Sadaharu Oh, founded the World Children's Baseball Foundation and the annual fair to develop international friendship, goodwill and cultural understanding among young people from all parts of the globe.

In fact, children from 23 countries, including Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands and the United States, will be participating in the 2010 Baseball Fair.

They will be involved in various activities and shown how to sharpen their skills by professional coaches from the International Baseball Federation.

In a statement, MABS president Mario Debono said he sees this recent invitation by the World Children's Baseball Foundation as a perfect opportunity for Maltese players to gather more experience at a time when the association is dedicating all its efforts to promote the sport in Malta and Gozo.

The association also thanked the Mellieħa Sports Club and Sports-mania (Gozo) for their support in this sporting adventure to Asia.