Ian Pont

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Ian Pont England (ENG)

Batting style	Right-handed batsman
Bowling type	Right-arm fast-medium

Career	First-class	List A
Matches	28	26
Runs scored	404	137
Batting average	16.16	19.57
100s/50s	0/1	0/0
Top score	68	36
Balls bowled	3978	1123
Wickets	70	20
Bowling average	35.78	40.45
5 wickets in innings	3	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a
Best Bowling	5/73	2/16
Catches/Stumpings	5/0	3/0
First-class debut: 17 July 1982 Last First-class: 30 August 1988 Updated: 14 July 2007 Source: Cricket Archive

Ian Leslie Pont (born 28 August 1961 in Brentwood, Essex, England) is an English former cricketer.^[1] Known for a powerful throw and a brief foray into the world of baseball,^[2] Pont mainly played for Essex during his career, as did his brother Keith Pont.^[1]

[edit] Biography

Pont made his senior cricket debut in September 1981, playing for Nottinghamshire against Gloucestershire and Glamorgan.^[3] He made his first-class debut the following year against Middlesex at Lord's.^[4] He played three Benson & Hedges Cup matches for the Minor Counties in 1983,^[3] whilst playing for Buckinghamshire,^[5] returning to first-class cricket in July 1985, this time for his native Essex.^[4]

He continued playing for Essex over the following three years, also fitting in a spell playing for Natal in South Africa in 1985/1986.^[5] Whilst in South Africa, he recorded the second longest throw of a cricket ball of all time, throwing 138 yards in Cape Town.^[2] He played a few first-class matches for Essex in 1986,^[4] but 1987 started out very differently indeed.

In 1987, Pont had trials with six Major League Baseball clubs as a pitcher. Recording speeds of around 100 mph, he gained a one months extended trial with the Philadelphia Phillies. At spring training, he was a starting pitcher for the Phillies in one exhibition game, becoming the first, modern-day professional cricketer to play in a professional baseball game.^[2]

He spent two more seasons playing first-class and List A cricket for Essex,^[4]^[3] after which he returned to minor counties cricket, playing for Northumberland in 1989 and Lincolnshire in 1990 and 1991.^[5] He played List A cricket for both teams.^[3]

After retiring from active cricket, he concentrated on his business interests. He was an early pioneer in coloured clothing, supplying the kit for all teams in the 1992 Cricket World Cup, and in the AXA Equity Law League in England in 1993, the first time cricket was played in coloured clothing in the UK.^[2]

He is now an international coach, working with players in the UK and overseas on pace and accuracy. The specialised coaching used is known as ABSAT (Advanced Biomechanics Speed & Accuracy Techniques. His book, The Fast Bowler's Bible, was published in 2006 by The Crowood Press and is on its second edition. Pont has recently been ECB National and Regional Skills Set Coach and the fast bowling coach of his former club Essex.^[6] and was the national bowling coach of the Netherlands for two years up until the 2007 World Cup, when he was lost in the reshuffle of staff when the head coach was changed after that tournament.^[7] Pont is currently working as a technical fast bowling consultant to Northamptonshire County Cricket Club and is Head Coach of the International Pro Camp based in Potchefstroom, South Africa that runs every December.

Pont's latest discovery is The World's Best Slower Ball known as The SLOB (Slower Obsolete Delivery), which is hailed as a breakthrough as it drops like a stone into the batting crease when appearing to be a beamer.