The 'Million Dollar Arm' guy is looking for the first U.S.-born cricket player with 'Million Dollar Bat'

Million Dollar Arm guy looks for US cricket player

By Mike Bertha

January 2, 2015

J.B. Bernstein is the American sports agent portrayed by Jon Hamm (swoon) in Disney's Million Dollar Arm. The film tells the story of Bernstein and his business partner and their quest to find two cricket bowlers in India who could throw hard enough to be converted into professional baseball pitchers.

This June -- a year after Million Dollar Arm hit theaters -- Bernstein will be at it again, this time trying out the inverse of his original plan. Dubbed "Million Dollar Bat," Bernstein's latest contest has been built to uncover a North American batsman capable of making it in the Indian Premier League.

"Having spoken to a number of professional baseball players and cricketers myself, there is a great deal of crossover between the two sports - especially in terms of hand-eye coordination - and I'm confident we'll find ourselves a US-born IPL star."

Dinesh Patel -- one of the winners of Million Dollar Arm -- was released by the Pirates in 2010, but the other winner, Rinku Singh, is still in baseball. He was invited to Pirates Spring Training last season, but missed the entire year after successful surgery on his throwing arm.

[h/t Sports360]