Baseball and cricket akin after all

We already knew that there are some similarities between baseball and cricket, but besides the bat and the ball I can’t tell any. The way of throwing is completely different, so the approach of a cricket batsman  is different than a baseball batter.

But that doesn’t make Windy cricket player Kieran Powell shy away from trying to start a career in professional baseball.

Thanks to a salary dispute with his West Indies cricket club, Powell practiced with two former Dodger players to try to get rid of his cricket habits.

Powell, an opening batsman from the West Indies, worked out on Wednesday at IMG Academy in front of representatives of various MLB clubs. The numbers of attendants was a lot smaller than he is used to during cricket games, but nevertheless Powell was quite nervous.

He ran, fielded and hit during this workout and it appeared that he is a diamond in the rough. Of course there are things that need to improve but he showed a decent arm with which he could easily throw to third base, and right on the money. But next to that he overthrew a couple of times and that shows that he inexperienced in the game of baseball.

Powell took practice swings but of course the pitches were not at game speed, so it remains to be seen if he can adapt to it. But overall Powell showed some athleticism that may help him further in his professional baseball career.

The 25-year-old Powell is ranked as the world’s 76th batsman on a list of the top 82 players, according to the International Cricket Council’s website.
As a kid he has seen enough baseball to know how the game has to be played.

According to the IMG’s baseball director Dan Simonds, the most difficult adjustment for Powell is still tweaking his left-handed swing to keep the bat in the zone as long as possible.

Powell realizes that he will not enter the Bigs immediately, but he claims that if he will be signed and gets a chance in the Minors, he will reach the Majors.

No matter, which team will sign him, their minor league affiliates will be very happy as it is an enormous publicity stunt to field a former cricket star.