'Bazball' to baseball for England's Brook
Cricket
England cricketers Brook and Issy Wong have been named Major League Baseball Europe 'ambassadors'.
MIAMI (AFP) – England cricketers Harry Brook and Issy Wong have been named Major League Baseball Europe 'ambassadors' ahead of June's games at London.
Brook, who has made a fantastic start to his Test career, making four centuries in his first six matches, is to join the St.Louis Cardinals for their spring training in Florida.
The Cardinals face the Chicago Cubs in a two-game series at London Stadium on June 24 and 25.
"I'm really excited for this partnership and can't wait to try my hand at hitting some home runs," Brook said in an MLB press release.
"I'm intrigued to see how different it is to cricket and what similarities there are too - will a home run feel as good as hitting a six?" he said.
Brook says he will be looking to see if he can pick up any skills to add to his impressive batting repertoire which has been honed under the all-out 'Bazball' attack of England coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes.
"I'm also excited to learn from how other professional sportspeople go about their game and see if there are any transferable skills between batting in baseball and cricket," he said.
"It's going to be amazing to see baseball first hand in the US and help spread the word back in the UK and hopefully help build baseball's fan base here."
England Test player Wong, 20, who recently secured a contract in India's Women's Premier League with Mumbai Indians, posed in a Cubs jersey as part of the MLB's promotion for the game.
"I think there's definitely things that, as cricketers, we can learn from baseball," said Wong.
