Trescothick offered £1m six-hitting incentive

Marcus Trescothick has been offered a £1 million incentive to go for his shots next summer. Trescothick, who is set to sign a sponsorship deal with Mongoose Bats to use their new long handle model next season, will win the prize from the bat makers if he clears the three-tier pavilion at Lord's in any 20- or 40-over match for Somerset.

"Technology is moving on all the time, cricketers are working harder in the gym and twenty20 cricket has enhanced their power," said Trescothick, who hit 84 sixes for England and whose domestic Twenty20 tally stands at 59. "I like Mongoose's innovative approach and attempting to hit the ball over the pavilion will be a challenge, but I have no idea whether I can achieve that until I try out their bats in the middle. I saw Pollard's massive shot at Lord's last summer. It is only a matter of time until someone else does clear the pavilion."

West Indies allrounder Kieron Pollard, who was Somerset's overseas signing in the Friends Provident t20 competition in 2010, came close to clearing the 50-foot high pavilion with a ferocious strike off Shaun Udal in a match against Middlesex in June. The only player known to have cleared the building was Australian Albert Trott. Playing for Middlesex against Australia in July 1899, Trott aimed a violent drive at a Monty Noble seamer to send the ball arcing over the pavilion roof and, some reports say, into the Grove End Road garden of Philip Need, the dressing-room attendant, behind the building.

"It will be a steep premium for us but £1m is a definite incentive for Marcus," said Marcus Codrington of Mongoose. "Obviously we have developed a very radical product but we are not revolutionaries trying to break the walls down."