This month, there were two stories of cricketers who came to USA and began playing American Football or Baseball. One is a defensive end at Penn State. The other is pitching for Lansing Lugnuts a Class A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
If an Aussie who played cricket until he was 17 and had never tried baseball can give it all up and try a new sport, I am sure Americans who play baseball could be convinced to give cricket a try. What do you all think?
Here are the two stories:
1) Penn State defensive end is Jack of all trades (May 3rd)
Yet just four years removed from the "real gray, real dull" environment of London, Jack Crawford is the man Penn State is pointing at to fill the gap left by Aaron Maybin, its All-America defensive end and first round NFL Draft pick.
''That kid,'' Aaron Maybin said of the 6-foot-5, 262-pound Crawford, ''is going to be an all-American very soon.''
2) Josh Wells: The down under wonder who grew up playing cricket, took up baseball at 17 (May 17th)
"Because I played cricket, I obviously had a stronger arm than the other kids. And all of a sudden it was, 'Who's this Josh kid?' " Josh Wells said about his shift to baseball.
Nearly five years after gripping his first baseball, Wells, who turns 22 on June 6, is in the midst of what he calls "a dream life" -- albeit as far from Sydney as he possibly could have imagined. He lives in an apartment with three other ballplayers in downtown Lansing, Michigan, a 3-minute walk from Oldsmobile Park, where he's in his first season as a starting pitcher for the Lugnuts.