Sports agent J.B. Bernstein, portrayed by Hollywood’s Jon Hamm in the 2014 Disney film “The Million Dollar Arm”, and his business partner Ash Vasudevan, were in Dubai to reveal their latest talent search which will see US baseball hitters compete for the chance to play cricket in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The co-creators of “The Million Dollar Arm” launched their latest venture “The Million Dollar Bat” at the Host Cities summit, where experts from the fields of sport and major events are gathered.

They were joined by Rinku Singh, 26, and Dinesh Kumar Patel, 25, the subjects of the American biographical sports drama that hit the big screen in May.

In 2008 the aspiring Olympic javelin throwers became the first Indians to sign a professional sports contract in North America after beating 37,000 hopefuls to win Bernstein’s reality TV contest and joining Major League Baseball’s Pittsburgh Pirates, despite neither having thrown a baseball before.

Today’s announcement put a new spin on the competition. The search for the Million Dollar Bat will take place in June 2015, with the winners eligible to play for an IPL franchise come November.

Whilst in Dubai, J.B Bernstein and Ash Vasudevan, took time out to visit Dubai Sports City and see first-hand the scale of Dubai’s cricket infrastructure with the view to potentially using the facilities on offer to train competition finalists.

J.B Bernstein said: “Where better to launch The Million Dollar Bat than Dubai, a visionary city connecting east and west and where major events are linked to grassroots programmes to boost participation in new sports.

"When we went to India no one had ever heard of baseball. We ‘borrowed’ the American Idol format, replaced the microphone with a baseball, and followed the old adage: ‘show me a guy who throws hard and I’ll teach him how to pitch’.

:Along came Rinku with his 88 miles per hour arm and the naturally talented Dinesh; the rest is history. Now we’re looking to do it again but with cricket.

"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.”

The man with the Million Dollar Arm, Rinku Singh said: “I still can’t really believe the journey I’ve been on since 2008. I’ve heard J.B. say since that no one really believed in the Million Dollar Arm idea when it was first brought it to the table.

"This new contest gives someone the chance to change their life. I know a few hitters back in the US who will be keen to give it a go!”

With the view towards potentially creating a Bollywood version of the Disney hit in 2015, the pair revealed and their team met with Dubai Studio City representatives to source insights on the infrastructure and facilities available to conduct such a project in Dubai.

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