Baseballers to hit T20 home run

Cricket could become a new career option for frustrated minor league baseball players, a veteran English coach believes.

Julien Fountain, who has featured on the coaching staffs of Pakistan, England, West Indies and Bangladesh, even has hopes of building a team of failed minor league baseballers capable of playing at an ICC Cricket World Cup.

Fountain is currently recruiting American players to a scheme he calls 'Switch Hit 20', aiming to take the aptitude and athleticism of the baseball players and train them in the nuances of Twenty20 cricket.

"For the last few years you have heard cricket announcers use the phrase, 'That was a real baseball shot'," Fountain told CNN.

"Well now you will be able to see those so-called baseball shots executed by guys who really can hit a ball 400 feet -- with a bat whose hitting area is a fraction of the width of a cricket bat.

"These guys have the potential to take the world of T20 cricket by storm."

Fountain had tryouts with the Royals, the White Sox and the Mets, before coaching some of cricket's top international teams using skills learned in the ballpark.

He helped pave the way coaches including current Australian fielding mentor Mike Young.

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Australia fielding mentor Mike Young // Getty Images

"Having moved back and forth between the two sports myself, I know the potential these guys have for success in T20 cricket," says Fountain.

"I was the first to introduce baseball fielding techniques to international cricket, because a major league outfielder will out-throw a professional cricketer every time."

While Major League Baseball players earn millions, players in minor leagues only pocket around $1000 a month.

"I'm not trying to take players away from a baseball career," Fountain told CNN.

"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."

It is something Fountain has done before. After leaving his post with Pakistan last year, he converted a group of Korean baseball players into a national cricket team that reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Games.

For Fountain, the endgame goes beyond getting his players a Twenty20 contract.

"I want to inject enough talent into USA cricket, to see it bounce back up the rankings. I want to coach a USA team at a World Cup."

A team already exists, but Fountain said by replacing its largely ex-pat spine with American baseball talent it could join the elite.