ICC hopes to attract players from other sports

The ICC Americas' high performance consultant Tom Evans has said the ICC is hoping to encourage players from mainstream sports to give cricket a look, after two former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletes - a baseball player and a lacrosse player - were included in a list of 83 names for phase one of the ICC Americas Cricket Combine in September.

Kyle Netheary, who was offered an NCAA Division One baseball scholarship to Central Arkansas in 2008, and Ryan Carter, who played four years for Butler University's lacrosse team from 2003-06, were two of the 83 names invited to the trial. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo after the list was announced, Evans said that although the pair might not have lengthy cricket credentials, he felt this trial was the perfect opportunity to think outside the box for player recruitment.

"I think it's probably worth taking a punt to see how the transfer of skills could potentially look and see how they go in some of the testing," Evans told ESPNcricinfo. "Particularly with a baseball guy like Kyle some of the fielding testing we do and potentially the batting testing, although against a bouncing ball he may struggle a little bit. But it's also to encourage that opportunities lie for people who have played college sports and have played other sports that they can make a transition to cricket if that's what they want to do in time.

"I think it's exciting to see that someone is willing to take that step and hopefully it could be the first of many down the track. They were the only two really that we had that were sort of from left field and we thought that this was an opportunity to see some of that skill transfer and see how it might potentially go. But it's nice to have a couple of guys who are interested in it from other sports."

Evans said he first discussed the issue with the six regional coaches who will be involved in the camp as talent evaluators and coaching development staff, and said the proposal received "near-unanimous" support from everyone. When asked if he thought it might rub some other players at the camp the wrong way, Evans said he hoped all invitees would keep an open mind regarding "skills transfer".

"I don't know how some of the guys will react but even just in putting that to the coaching group that there were two guys from outside of the sport that I suggested might be worth a bit of a punt.

"I think everyone agreed that it was a good idea to have a look at that and something we'd hope to see more of, particularly in North America but in other countries as well - the transfer from other sports to cricket - and hopefully that can be a bit of a trailblazer for other guys from other sports. It's exciting to see how they track and how they go. They may be very raw but hopefully it's something that could encourage some more of that in the future."

Separately, the first weekend of the tournament will feature 14 former national team representatives for USA at the U-15 and U-19 levels who haven't yet been able to make the transition into the senior team. Evans was pleased with the number of applications he received from young talent and felt this may be an opportunity for them to show they haven't been forgotten since the phasing out of junior cricket.

"Hopefully it gives them a bit of incentive to feel like there is still an opportunity to impress. I think it's hard sometimes in such a big country to get opportunities to impress with what's happened in the past. So hopefully this gives them a little extra motivation and a bit of extra vision from a number of eyes as to what they have to offer.

"I think it is relatively normal in most systems that there is a bit of a logjam after U-19s because there's only 14 senior spots and every two years there's an U-19 team picked. So it's probably a little bit normal that there's a few there but hopefully this gives them the added motivation to kick on and prove that they're ready for the next level."

In addition to many of the fringe national players that have been floating around the USA cricket circuit for the last several years in the main playing areas like New York and Los Angeles, several players from neglected areas were also included in the trial. A host of players from Massachusetts - Sharaz Baksh, Jaideep Reddy and Pratik Dudhane - one player from Minnesota, Pavan Kumar Chakravarthy, and another from Kentucky, Mohsin Kapadia, have also been invited.

Evans says it is the lesser known players that he is most eager to see at the trial. Rather than the established names who have been in and out of the national team, the wildcard selections more closely follow what seems to be the broad theme of this initiative in casting a wide net to see what talent the ICC might uncover.

"We know there are some really good players in this list that we are pretty confident that would be close to the mark. But it's probably more the players we don't know so much about that I'm excited to see.

"So I think there's certainly some exciting talent there but you don't know until you see them in a pressure situation and that'll be exciting to have them tested on their skills and fitness but also tested in some game situations to see how they react under pressure."