The organization of professional baseball of the United States' Major League Baseball will support the development of the juvenile league in Nicaragua, local sports daily reported Thursday.

Ronaldo Peralta, the operations manager of MLB, has promised to fund five academies for the Nicaraguan juvenile baseball players.

Peralta was making an official visit in Nicaragua to know the first steps of this support to the Nicaraguan baseball, creating juvenile academies, giving lesson and giving sports tools.

Also, the MLB, the Mayoralty of Managua (ALMA) and the American Collages signed different accords of cooperation for the development of the Nicaraguan baseball.

The Young Nicaraguan Association and the Indios del Boer club of the Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League (LNBP) inked those agreements.

With the program, the MLB will give the necessary equipment to three of the five academies that will be inaugurated on September.

These sports centers will assist one million Nicaraguan children between 10 and 13 years old, who must be registered students and with high grades.

Also the MLB will sent four of the eleven coaches of juvenile baseball to Nicaragua to train in the academies of Dominican Republic.

Peralta said he will meet with authorities of the Nicaraguan Institute of Sports (IND) and with officers of the U.S. embassy to Nicaragua in order to get their support on the program.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2008)