Now those that love cricket will pour scorn on baseball and those that are baseball loyalists will view cricket with contempt. One would think that any cross over from one to the other would not only be unlikely, it would be laughable. Now however we may actually see baseball-cricket crossover of sorts. We bring you a cricket special report.
One of the leading satellite cable TV providers in the United States, DirecTV, (the biggest in the US for cricket coverage) thinks that such a cricket-baseball cross over may be possible. In a promotional event for their cricket package to be launched later this month, DirecTV wants to get one of the country’s top and best known baseball players, Manny Ramirez to try and play cricket. According to reports, the cable TV providers are, is in talks to have Ramirez do a stint on a cricket pitch and face an experience bowler. Ramirez is what is known as a ‘slugger’ in baseball parlance and he will now be facing a bowler rather than a pitcher.
Baseball and cricket differ in several ways; one among them is the way the ball is delivered. Whereas the bowler has a run up and bounces the ball on the pitch before it reaches the batsman, in baseball the ‘pitcher’ stands in one spot an pitches a ‘curveball’ or a ‘slider’ or a ‘sinker’ directly to the batter, without it pitching in between.
So it will be interesting to see if Ramirez, who is well recognized for his strong offensive abilities, is able to handle a Yorker, or a leg break googly or a bouncer (depending of course on what kind of bowler he will have to face) and also if he is able to actually score some runs while he’s at it.
Ramirez has earned himself several distinctions such as playing the prestigious All Star games for the past 11 years, by being named Most Valuable Player of the World Series in 2004 and having the most Grand slams of any active player of baseball.
It remains to be seen if this attempt to grab more eyeballs for their
cricket live coverage in the US and to get die hard baseball fans to view cricket with some favour takes off and if Ramirez’s foray into a foreign game pays off.
