Former Aussie paceman Nathan Bracken says he's confident his cricket skills will come in handy as he bids to snare the NSW seat of Dobell.
The former left-arm quick, who retired in 2011 after a chronic knee injury, confirmed on Monday that he's contesting the central coast seat as an independent.
The 35-year-old is being bankrolled by millionaire businessman John Singleton, who's also backing Lawrie McKinna under the banner "Team Central Coast".
Mr McKinna, the former coach of the Central Coast Mariners and current mayor of Gosford, is running as an independent in the nearby seat of Robertson.
Mr Bracken said his campaign would highlight a range of local issues being ignored by the major parties.
"You're looking at the roads up here, medical health services, education and the unemployment rate - it's double what it is everywhere else," he told AAP.
The Hamlyn Terrace local was confident his background in sports would transfer well to politics.
"When I was playing I used to want to know what I was coming up against, what was out there and what needed to be done," he said.
"I'd look into issues and problems that a player had, whether it was a weakness or a strength, and it's the same in this."
Mr Bracken, who's currently suing cricket's governing body over the management of an injury in 2007, said he had already received positive feedback from voters "excited that the area was now being talked about".
Dobell is currently held with a margin of 5.1 per cent by former Labor MP Craig Thomson, who resigned from the party in May to contest it as an independent, but is expected to lose.
He is defending civil and criminal action over allegations he misused union member funds when he was national secretary of the Health Services Union. Meanwhile, Mr McKinna said local issues, and especially the state of Gosford's CBD, were his priority.
"The city centre is dead at the moment and we need assistance," he told AAP.
He said "Team Central Coast" would force the major parties to "sit up and take notice" of the area.
"We want (them) to show some commitment to the central coast, which has not been done in the past," Mr McKinna added.
"Regardless of where we finish, as long as we can get some commitments from the two parties that's what we're after."
Labor's Deborah O'Neill currently holds Robertson on a slim margin of one per cent.
Mr Singleton is said to be bankrolling Mr Bracken and Mr McKinna because he believes locals have been overlooked by the big parties and doesn't want the area to become a "lost opportunity".
He has numerous interests in the region including in properties, a thoroughbred horse stud at Mt White and Gosford's Bluetongue stadium.
