Mumbai gets taste of another ballgame

While some like Siddesh Parab (12) found it difficult to pick up on his twang, others like Sushant Nalawade (13) felt ‘‘his actions were enough’’.

On his second visit to the country following a month-long coaching session in Chandigarh last year, Dell is here at the invitation of the Maharashtra Baseball Association and is “just amazed by the level of Indians at baseball.

Though he cannot watch cricket for a ‘long time’, Dell is still fascinated by the game. ‘‘I am intrigued by some of the movements. Just the way they swing the bat and bowl, it’s just amazing.’’

Dell feels that cricket is ‘‘so ready to embrace new things’’, which is why he says that those who play the sport are at an advantage should they take up baseball.

Explaining that baseball is no longer considered as the sole preserve of the Americans—40 per cent of the players in the major league were born outside the United States—Dell says the game certainly has a chance in India.

‘‘It is just the opposite of what we had initially expected. The players here have shown such superb skills and enthusiasm that it has left us quite surprised. They don’t feel uncomfortable and know the basics well,’’ Dell says.

Again, he gives credit to cricket. ‘‘If you went to Germany in the 1970s, the guys there would never know what it meant to swing and hit or even throw. India is different. You already have a ‘bat-and-ball mentality’,” says the American in Mumbai, attempting to put things in perspective.

Maybe, just maybe, there might be a brand new sport for urban India soon.