ECB Chairman Giles Clark is hitting the road on BBC’s new reality competition series “England’s Next Great Batsman”, to premier next season
London – The Chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board Giles Clark will headline the panel for BBC’s new reality competition series “England’s Next Great Batsman” premiering next season.
Clark will be joined by Chairman of Selectors Geoff Miller, England coach Andy Flower and a fourth panelist, Jessica Taylor, the wife of Kevin Pietersen and a former pop-star and ice dance reality show veteran.
The panelists will act as judge, jury and sometimes mentor to the hopeful contestants who are vying for one of the biggest prizes in world cricket — the opportunity to bat in the English middle order. The show will not be open to any English born contestants, as the English team has reached its ideal limit of locally-born batsmen – two (Cook and Bell).
Open casting calls for the series are set to take place throughout the English cricket season across the country. Applications are available on-line, or may be picked up from any Australian behind the bar of a West London pub.
Flower will kick off the first open casting call in Yorkshire as casting teams set out on a cross-country bus tour to scour the nation for potential contestants. Participants do not need to have any bowling or fielding skills – just some idea on how to hold a cricket bat.
Given the likely strong interest in South Africa, Taylor will also host a special casting call in Cape Town. Four finalists from the Cape Town screening will go straight into the final 12 for the series.
Taylor joins a select panel of some of the most important names in English cricket who will ultimately select the winner.
These individuals will invest a large part of their reputations, and will have a huge stake, in the game’s winner. These panelists will offer the hopeful cricketers their expertise, support — and the kind of tough love it will take to overcome great odds. Ultimately, after many heated debates, the panel will choose the winning cricketer who will become England’s newest batsman.
Thousands of hopefuls will be narrowed down and then each week the investors will put the chosen few through rigorous challenges to discover which contestant’s technique has the greatest potential for success. The stakes have never been higher for the contestants and the investors. One contestant’s dream will become a reality.
They will follow in the footsteps as such current non-English born players like captain Andrew Strauss, Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Michael Lumb, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, and Matt Prior, as well as past players like Allan Lamb, Robin Smith, Tony Greig and Graeme Hick.
Interested applicants for the series should log onto ecb.co.uk/casting to pre-register for an open casting call at one of the eighteen county stops on the nationwide casting bus tour.
Along with a filled out and signed application and a photo-ID, casting teams want applicants to bring anything they feel would help get tabloid attention.
Elements could include girlfriends, mothers and police records and applicants will have a limited time to pitch their idea. Visitors also can follow the bus tour on Twitter @desperatesearch with photos and video, and also at ecb.co.uk/englands-next-great-batsman and the official casting page here.
The series follows on from other novel ideas that the ECB has turned to, including their long term plans to develop leg-spin in the country. Elizabeth Hurley has been the spearhead behind that campaign lately, although there are doubts about the plan due to Hurley’s age and the likelihood for conception. H
urley’s attempts follow the failure to ensnare Richie Benaud a few years ago when a miscommunication about “the old Aussie bloke with the microphone” led to Katie Price (aka Jordan) marrying Peter Andre.
Happy April 1st.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.
Australian fast bowling great Jason Gillespie has been named head coach of Pakistan's Test team, as the nation overhauls its coaching department ahead of…
Will Jacks got RCB past the 200 target set by Gujarat with four overs to spare.
With Rajasthan needing 25 off 17, both batsmen ended up at the same end but the bowler dropped the throw from his teammate -…
A six-laden, 27-ball 84 from Jake Fraser-McGurk to continue his outrageous debut IPL!
Johnny Bairstow has hit his way back into form with a 45-ball century as he steered his side to a record-breaking win, easily chasing…
It seems franchise cricket has forgotten about the great battle between bat and ball. In fact, this season in the IPL there is no battle at all.
