24 of the greatest players ever will be seen in action in 3 cities in the US.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: This is what America really needed to give a fillip to the game called cricket: a gathering of 24 of the greatest heroes the game has ever seen, under one roof. In the case of the inaugural ‘Cricket All-Stars’ T20 series, between the fantasy teams of Sachin’s Blasters vs. Warne’s Warriors, make that three roofs: Citi Field inNew York City on Nov. 7, Minute Maid Park in Houston on Nov. 11 and the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, on Nov. 14.
For Indian cricket lovers, especially those who can relive the country’s two triumphs in the World Cup – the 1983 and the 2011 tournaments – it’s been a heady journey for the almost three decades between the two seminal moments.
There’s been an astonishing array of international cricket stars like perhaps never seen before in the history of the game, especially those who have delivered in the shorter form of the game, the 50 overs matches, which got further truncated when the T20 avatar took shape.
Even the best hitters in the game from the yesteryears paled before some stunning new talent in the 20 overs version; the best bowlers smacked right out of the ground with alarming frequency. But that’s what viewers have now come to relish at such matches, which are also enriching cricketers like never before.
New cricket stars are nowadays born after every T20 event. It’s a far cry from the days of test match cricket, where reputations were carefully crafted over years of steady performance.
In between all these formats of the game, the one question that always seemed to crop up for the aficionados of the sport was which players would make the roster of the fantasy all-time T20 team, cutting across all nations and over three decades.
Look no further.
The 24 players who are set to play the three matches for the teams Sachin’s Blasters, captained by the man revered as the ‘Cricket God’ Sachin Tendulkar, and Warne’s Warriors, captained by the wily spinner Shane Warne – who had the measure of most batsmen, except perhaps Tendulkar – would probably feature in somebody or the other’s dream team, for sure.
The challenge would be to encompass these 24 cricketers into a fantasy team of 11. It’s a hard task to do when one of the extras might seem to be a better choice on any given day than what you initially reckoned was your top bet.
Here are the 24 players in order of their country caps, who will take the field for Sachin’s Blasters vs. Warne’s Warriors:
India: Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Ajit Agarkar.
Australia: Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Michael Vaughan.
South Africa: Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener, Jonty Rhodes, Allan Donald.
Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan.
England: Graeme Swann.
West Indies: Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Carl Hooper.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori.
Pakistan: Wasim Akram, Shoaib Akhtar, Moin Khan, Saqlain Mushtaq.
“Americans are so passionate about sports, and I think there’s a huge potential for cricket to take off,” said Tendulkar, the brain along with Warne behind the unique series, in a statement.
“This is also the first time that international cricket will be played in these beautiful baseball stadiums in New York City, Houston and Los Angeles, which will be a lot of fun. We’re also planning some other events and festivities in each city so we can reach as many fans as possible. It would be great someday to see cricket bats right alongside the baseball bats, basketballs and soccer balls in America,” Tendulkar added.
Warne stated: “We’ve signed all the top players you’d ever want to see. I’m excited for cricket fans in the United States to be able to see these amazing players for the first time, and I also think that the T20 format will appeal to new audiences who have never seen or played cricket before. I’m really looking forward to the matches in November, and helping to grow the sport of cricket in America.”
‘Cricket All-Stars’ is being produced by New York City-based Leverage Agency, a full-service sports and entertainment marketing company. Leverage will also handle the marketing and promotion for the event. Sponsors for ‘Cricket All-Stars’ include MasterCard, State Farm® and Uber.
“There is tremendous excitement for the series amongst cricket fans in the United States,” said Ben Sturner, CEO of Leverage Agency, in an interview to The American Bazaar. He said there are some surprises coming up too, so watch this space, nearer to the series.
In a press release, Sturner stated: “It’s been a dream of mine to help bring the best of cricket to America. Cricket is the second most popular sport in the world and we couldn’t ask for better partners than Sachin and Shane on this exciting venture.”
The tickets for the matches, and some exciting events that are built around it, is available on the following sites:
Citi Field (NYC): Mets.com/cricket
Minute Maid Park (Houston): Ticketmaster.com/event/
Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles): Dodgers.com/cricket