In 2008, cricket player-turned-reality show contestant Rinku Singh made headlines when he (and Dinesh Patel) left India to play baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The story was so popular, it hit the silver screen as “Million Dollar Arm”.
Former Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguer Boomer Collins is hoping to be the opposite of Singh – minus the benefit of a reality competition and the 2014 Disney movie – and make the jump from playing minor league baseball to playing professional cricket.
-Breaking- "BlueJays Minor Leaguer from #Waxahachie is training to become a professional cricket player" @FOX4
— Julien Fountain (@JulienFountain) November 24, 2015
“I’m not trying to take players away from a baseball career,” cricket coach Julien Fountain said. “But any current minor leaguers who feel they aren’t going to make it, or guys who have recently been cut or quit because they simply cannot afford to carry on; they are perfect for a career in modern cricket. And the key things for these guys is that it pays considerably better than the Gulf Coast League.”
Fountain is right. Should Collins make it to the Indian Premier League, he has a big chance to cash in. IPL players make, on average, a little more than four million annually. Sure that’s on par with Major League Baseball, but given Collins’ age (he’ll be 27 in June) and the outfielder has not had as much as a plate appearance outside of Single-A baseball.
Let’s just hope Collins swings the cricket bat as well as Manny Ramirez thinks he does.
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