Over the years plenty of professional sportsmen have turned their hand to golf, with the likes of Michael Phelps, Steph Curry and Gareth Bale all prolific players of the game away from their hugely successful respective sporting careers.
On the other hand, you’d struggle to find many professional golfers who have made a name for themselves outside of the golfing world. But that could all be about to change with Dubai resident and three-time Asian Tour winner Shiv Kapur lending his expertise to a revolutionary cricket simulator experience that is the brainchild of Rohit Gupta, CEO of Precision Golf Middle East.
“Both of us share a common love for cricket and golf,” said Kapur, who first discussed the idea with Gupta during a round at The Els Club, Dubai.
“So how do we take the expertise we have in golf and apply that to cricket? Looking around the world there isn’t a single driving range for cricket. You have nets but you don’t actually have anywhere where you can go and hit a cricket ball out in the open. Rohit made a great observation that you grow up watching the game wanting to bat not field, so how do you develop something for cricket where everyone gets a chance to bat?”
That led Gupta to creating a Topgolf-like game named Six2O Cricket, which promises players an immersive, interactive cricket experience for all ages and abilities. Every shot played will be tracked through multi-sensor technology, while holograms of fielders will attempt to catch balls on the field of play.
“We have developed the concept and all our own in-house Six20 Cricket technology from scratch,” said Gupta, who has worked on the concept for the last two years.
“From animation, gamification and bowling machines to the bats and balls – everything is created in-house so that we can continually develop this concept.”
Kapur added: “One of our inspirations was Topgolf, but we want to go way beyond that. We really want a visually engaging experience for players, so we have decided to use glow in the dark balls to make it exciting. We have holograms of fielders who will attempt to catch every ball played. We want to give everyone a really fun experience, from food to music and everything in-between.”
So where did the name Six2O Cricket come from?
“The name Six2O comes from Rohit’s love of a 62 degree wedge, he hits it from everywhere!” joked Kapur.
Similar to Topgolf, players will attempt to hit balls as far as they can from bays, which can also open up to join adjacent bays, while the land needed for a Six20 Cricket site is only one acre, with boundaries set between the modern IPL standard of 60-70 yards.
As well as offering fun games that are suitable for the whole family, the concept is also catering for more serious cricketers with the creation of ‘Test Cricket Bays’ used to face the world’s fastest and best bowlers.
“We have a bit of everything at Six2O Cricket,” said Kapur. “The glow balls, neon lights and visual effects will predominantly come into effect in the evening, so our target time to play the game is between 5-11pm.
“During the day, each of our locations will have one or two bays that have designated professional bowling machines to allow test cricketers and kids the chance to pad up, put a helmet on and test their game at a high level.Our model is fun, entertainment and cricket in that order.”
Six20 Cricket will originally be rolled out in two locations in India with a further ten planned in the country in the next three years, while talks are underway to launch the concept in the Middle East in Q4 of 2024.
“There’s a huge south Asian population out here in the Middle East,” said Gupta. “Cricket is loved in the UAE and it’s not just the sport we are selling, it’s the entertainment side of it – just look at how many nationalities play Topgolf.”
Kapur added: “I think this concept will do well in Dubai as not only do you have a large south Asian community you also have many expats who are from other cricket-loving countries such as England, Australia and South Africa. This is a very unique place.”
If the success of Topgolf is anything to go by, Gupta and Kapur could be on something big here. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Six2O Cricket!
