Former Great Britain Olympic baseball pitcher Julian Fountain will join the Bermuda's cricket national team in South Africa as a specialist fielding coach ahead of their tour of Namibia.

Fountain worked with the Island's new coach David Moore during the West Indies tour of England in 2007 and will spend six days putting Bermuda's players through their paces at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.

He is widely regarded as the first coach in cricket to bring in learnings from baseball and worked with the late Bob Woolmer and Pakistan briefly during their 2006 tour to England and with the Pakistan 'A' side in 2001.

The ex-New York Mets trialist also assisted with the England Twenty/20 squad in 2006/0, the Stanford Superstars and more recently helped the Ireland national team win the World Cup qualifying tournament in South Africa.

Arnold Manders, acting national team coach, said the coaches and players were excited to have Fountain assist with their preparations for the upcoming Intercontinental Shield, 50-over and Twenty/20 matches against Namibia.

"We are confident that he will be able to assist and improve our players fielding skills on the various advanced fielding techniques and drills to be used in the intensive six-day camp at the High Performance Camp," he said.

Fountain started his cricket career playing for Somerset County Cricket Club within their youth development teams, from Under-13 to Under-19.

But after two seasons at the Under-19 level he decided to take up baseball and in 1988 was selected to represent Great Britain in the European Championships in Bordeaux, having only played the game for six months.

The following year he made his debut for the full Great Britain national team and was part of the British Olympic squad in the European Championships in 1989 in Paris, France and in 1991 in Rome, Italy.

During his time as a pitcher he also attended several professional try-outs with top Major League Baseball (MLB) teams including the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox and the Mets.

Fountain believes cricket can still learn more from baseball: "Taken in the correct context, cricket can learn loads from baseball," Fountain said. "Taken out of context by coaches simply quoting 'They do it in baseball' can do more harm than good.

"Baseball teaches its fielders correct biomechanics for each skill, correct biomechanics for accurate, powerful throwing, tactical awareness for pre-shot movements and post-shot situations, sliding, diving, relays, backing up, multiple-play scenarios, decision-making, the list is huge."

Bermuda will compete against Namibia for the ICC Shield from April 2 and 5 and will play two One-Day Internationals on April 7 and 8 and a Twenty/20 match on April 10.