Golden arm that pitches for a million dollars
SAURAV BORA
Guwahati, Jul 13 : On Kaliabor College grounds at Kuwaritol, 180km away from Guwahati, one hundred boys are nurturing a great American dream.
In a shift from the lure of Silicon Valley, the dream manifests itself in The Million Dollar Arm, a reality show to select the fastest baseball pitchers in India.
With the entry of Season 2, it looks set to change the lives of the 10 fastest baseball pitchers head on.
At stake for a start, are a million dollars and the priceless prospect of being a part of a premier baseball league in the United States.
As the hunt for the Fastest Ten was launched across the country last month, the 100-odd aspirants are training hard to make it to the Major League Baseball (MLB), a frontline baseball league in the US.
“The boys are fine-tuning their skills at the Kaliabor camp since July 5. Our boys have the talent and speed to make the cut. But of course, the criteria for the preliminary selection is that they have to pitch the ball at a minimum speed of 70mph,” Ashma Begum, the secretary of the Assam Baseball Association, said.
The camp is one among the 60 conducted across the country to locate the perfect pitcher from India.
The Amateur Baseball Federation of India (ABFI), in association with MLB, is jointly conducting the programme. The second edition of the talent hunt will handpick the fastest pitchers (in the age group 16 to 21) and groom them under MLB coaches for six months in China. Senior coaches from MLB Rick Dell (director, Training Asia), Robin Allem and Dave Palese conducted a coaching clinic for select players and coaches in Delhi last month. Season 1 of The Million Dollar Arm produced two winners, Rinku Singh and Dinesh Kumar, who now play for the Pittsburg Pirates — an American county in the MLB.
The duo, who hail from villages near Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh that lack basic amenities, are earning millions, after being picked in 2008.
That triggered the boys from the 10 districts of Assam to believe in their throwing arm.
And going by Mulchand Singh, one of the coaches at the Kaliabor camp, there is reason to be optimistic. “Two of our trainees — Majid Khan from Lanka and Chiranjib Bordoloi from Nagaon — have the potential to pitch the ball at a speed of over 90mph,” said Singh, who is from Jharkhand.
Seventeen-year-old Chiranjib, who has been playing baseball for the past three years, is upbeat. “I believe I can pitch the ball at that speed. We have been slogging it out for over seven hours at the camp since July 5. Apart from pitching, we are being trained on catching and running as well. And thankfully, the diet has been up to mark. After all, it will all boil down to strength and technique,” the prospect from Raha (Nagaon), whose father is a daily wage earner, said.
Like Chiranjib, Majid, 16, too is raring to go. “I have been playing the game for two years now. And camps like these help us learn the finer points of the game. As far as the speed is concerned, 80mph should be regulation, I feel,” the boy from Hojai (Lanka) says.
“The contestants may not necessarily be baseball players. They can be amateur cricketers as well. It’s open for all boys in the stipulated age group,” Vivek Daglur, the vice-president of Turn On, the event partner of the programme, said.
“The speed of the contestants will be tested over a pitching distance of 60 feet and each of them will be given three attempts for pitching and two additional attempts if their speed is over 70mph. The fastest 50 pitchers (those pitching 80mph and above) will be shortlisted for the finals to be held in Mumbai in August,” he said.
“The top 10 and their coaches will share a million dollars. This apart, the winner stands a chance to win an additional US $90,000 by pitching the ball three times over 92mph and hitting a target,” he added.
Ab India Bhi Khelega is the tagline of the programme. And Assam’s kids, too, are aiming to script history, a la Rinku and Dinesh.
