MUMBAI: It’s not just cricket calling the shots anymore baseball is stepping up to the plate. Zee Entertainment Enterprises limited (‘Z’) has teamed up with Baseball United, the first professional baseball league focused on the Middle East and South Asia, to bring the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd to Indian screens this festive season.
In a historic move, Zee will air all 21 games of Baseball United’s Season One this November and December, including primetime matches featuring the Mumbai Cobras, India’s first professional baseball franchise. For the first time, Indian audiences will have a homegrown team to root for, complete with six Indian players sharing the field with global stars.
The games will stream live on Zee5, and be broadcast across Zee Café SD, &Flix SD, and &Pictures HD, in both English and Hindi, ensuring fans from every corner of India can catch the action.
The lineup for Baseball United’s debut season reads like a continental all-star card Arabia Wolves, Mid East Falcons, Karachi Monarchs, and Mumbai Cobras will battle it out across 21 games in 30 days, with the season finale set for 12–14 December in Dubai.
Beyond the matches, Zee5 will hit a content home run with player features, ballpark highlights, Baseball 101 explainers, and even a documentary chronicling the making of the league. Zee will back the partnership with a four-week promotional blitz, featuring teasers, ad spots, and social media campaigns to introduce baseball’s flair to India’s massive fanbase.
“At Zee, we’re committed to bringing world-class international sports to Indian audiences,” said Zee Entertainment Enterprises head of advertisement revenue (broadcast and digital), Laxmi Shetty Ltd. “With ILT20, we celebrated international cricket talent; now, we’re expanding that vision with baseball. India already has a deep bat-and-ball culture, this partnership brings speed, strategy, and spectacle in a whole new form.”
The collaboration isn’t just about sport, it’s about scale. Zee’s combined digital and linear platforms reach over 800 million viewers across India, positioning it perfectly to help Baseball United tap into the country’s 50 million baseball fans and ignite curiosity among millions more.
For Baseball United, India is more than just a market, it’s a cornerstone. “This is a major milestone in our mission to bring professional baseball to India and the broader region,” said Baseball United chairman, CEO, and co-founder Kash Shaikh. “For the first time, fans will have their own team to cheer for with Indian players inspiring a new generation.”
The league’s ambitious debut season, backed by 20 Major League Baseball legends including Mariano Rivera, Barry Larkin, Adrián Beltré, and Albert Pujols, aims to grow the sport across one of the world’s most populous and passionate sporting regions.
And when the Mumbai Cobras take the field on 14 November in Dubai, it won’t just mark the start of a season, it’ll mark the moment India’s love for bat-and-ball takes a bold, new swing.