“Million Dollar Arm,” opening Friday (May 16), is Disney’s take on the true story of sports agent J.B. Bernstein (played by Jon Hamm, of “Mad Men”) who traveled to India in search of fresh baseball talent after watching a televised match of cricket – the complicated game that was modified into baseball. Hoping to find a fast pitcher, Bernstein created a TV talent show similar to “American Idol” with baseballs and radar guns. But after auditioning 40,000 contestants, the winner, Rinku Singh (played by Suraj Sharma from “Life of Pi”) and the runner-up, Dinesh Pate (Madhur Mittal from “Slumdog Millionaire”), were not dedicated cricket players but rather javelin throwers. They subsequently signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Safdar Khan – an expert batsman and bowler for the Cricket Club of Illinois and father of four sons who have played American baseball and cricket – talked with Dusty Rhodes, the News Bureau arts and humanities editor about why the skill of bowling in cricket doesn’t necessarily translate to pitching in baseball. Khan is an instructor with the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine and the director of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.
In both cricket and baseball, a ball is thrown to a batter, the thrower tries to trick the batter, the batter tries to hit the ball as far as possible and fielders try to catch the ball. Aside from that, there are many differences between the two games. Describe some of the main differences between pitching in baseball and “bowling” in cricket.
The main difference is that in cricket, the bowler runs up to the line and bowls with a straight arm, whereas in baseball, the pitcher stands on the rubber and throws the ball with a bent elbow. In cricket, the bowler aims at the “stumps” or “wickets” just behind the batsman by making the ball hit the ground first and bounce up, whereas in baseball, the pitcher throws the ball over the plate. They’re similar in that, in cricket, fast bowlers can easily bowl more than 90 miles per hour, and they can also intimidate the batsman by aiming at their body (that’s why the batsman needs to wear a helmet, cup, pads, gloves, and thigh and chest guards) to get them out by forcing them to make a mistake. The batsman might miss completely, so the ball hits the wickets (“bowled out”), or he might mistime his swing and end up batting the ball straight to a fielder and being “caught” out.
In cricket, mainly, there are two types of bowlers: fast bowlers (also known as “pace” bowlers) and slow or “spin” bowlers. Fast bowlers learn to bowl “in-swingers,” which deviate in the air; “in-cutters,” which deviate after hitting the seam on the ground; and out-swingers and out-cutters. Swing bowling is an art. It is learned by holding either the shiny or rough side of the ball to one side or the other, depending on whether you want it to swing in or out, and pitching the ball at a certain angle. Adjusting these factors makes the ball change direction drastically. It is equivalent to the fast curve ball (inward or away) in baseball.
Spin (slow) bowlers hold the ball in a certain way with their fingers or wrist to make the ball rotate. A spinning ball in cricket is similar to a breaking ball in baseball. Googly ball is a deceptive bowl that involves the bowler bending his wrist and arm position sharply to throw a ball that’s difficult to predict in the air.
Your youngest son specializes in “legspin bowling,” a throw that is almost impossible to hit. Did he also try pitching American baseball style?
Yes, his legspin bowling helped him learn to throw a good slow, loopy curvy ball.
Do you have a theory on why no Indian cricket bowlers won the “Million Dollar Arm” pitching contest? Is it because the skills are just too different? Or is it because the soil composition of the “pitch” (the equivalent of baseball’s infield) is slower in India?
Possibly all of the above. The slower pitches provide more support and encourage spin bowlers rather than fast bowlers. If that sports agent had known more about cricket, he would have gone to Australia, Pakistan, South Africa or the West Indies – places that have produced some of the fastest bowlers in the past.
Variety has dubbed this movie “Jerry Maguire Goes to India” or “Slumdog Fireballer,” and American sportswriters are predicting that it might pave the way for the sport to finally catch on in India. Can you foresee any way that baseball could become popular in cricket-loving countries?
No way; this won’t happen in my lifetime. Cricket is more than a religion in the subcontinent.
Editor’s note: Read about cricket play on Illinois’ south quad here.
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