Riccardo Fraccari, President of World Baseball Softball Confederation wants to invest in baseball in New Zealand.

The World Baseball Softball Federation is looking at setting up a baseball academy in New Zealand and funding more games for the national team to play.

President of the WBSC Federation, Riccardo Fraccari has spent three days in New Zealand meeting with officials and sees the country having great potential in the game.

Fraccari, who was the main driving force behind the sports returning to the Olympics from the next games in Tokyo in 2024, feels baseball can take off in not only New Zealand, but all of Oceania and they're prepared to fund that rise.

"I think New Zealand and Australia can grow a lot, because there are strong, physical athletes from here," Fraccari said.

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"We can get good results in a short amount of time. They [New Zealand] have gone from being non existent in the rankings to 26th, so it's growing very fast."

Fraccari wants there to be more games between Oceania nations, establish academies and also help bring closer ties between baseball and softball in New Zealand.

"First of all we can put some money in to allow there to be a regional competition," Fraccari said.

"Because the problem is that for some federations like American Samoa and Guam, it's tough to travel. So we can invest money to allow there to be regional competitions.

"If you play you grow, if you don't play you don't grow.

"Also we will have discussions about the possibility of building some academies here.

"The other problem is how to incorporate with softball because now we have only one international federation.

"If we join forces, that's better than being separate."

It's been debated for a few years that the best way to grow baseball in New Zealand is to get a team in the professional Australian Baseball League, which currently has six teams.

But Fraccari believes attention should be made to starting a New Zealand domestic league.

"I think that in New Zealand there needs to be a strong league and there is the potential to have a strong league here," he said.

"At the moment Australia is stronger, but I don't see many problems growing it here."

Fraccari believes it is vital Australia remains part of Oceania Baseball and doesn't do what soccer did and join up with Asia.

"This is the reality, one piece of this continent is big and the others are small, but if you grow the other countries then that's better," he said.

"In soccer, Australia isn't in Oceania, it's in Asia. They asked me if they could join Asia in baseball, but I said no.

"If Australia leaves Oceania all the other countries will remain very weak.

"I told them I want to grow the other countries and also that Australia has a responsibility to grow the game in other countries.

"If you take out the cream, the cake isn't very good."

Fraccari said no decisions have been made yet on any qualifying process for men's baseball or women's softball at the 2020 Olympics.

But a hurdle that needs to be overcome is getting Major League Baseball to allow their players to go to the Olympics.

There is a lot of reluctance in America to putting the MLB season on hold for a month once every four years and it's likely the Olympics will take place without many of baseball's biggest stars.

But Fraccari hopes this situation will change.

"In the past there was only the MLB, now there are professional leagues in Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Bringing in the Asian leagues balances it a bit," he said.

"The Japanese league will be suspended during the Olympics and I think we'll find an agreement with the MLB.

"The Olympics is the most important stage for any sport.

"We've started discussions [with MLB] and they've been positive. I think we'll find an agreement, but I don't know how.

"In Tokyo baseball is No 1 and in 2024 Los Angeles is running for the Olympics, so this is a good moment for baseball."