Sachin Tendulkar has just played one exhibition match in the USA (New York), in 1990; and the champion batsman thinks Shane Warne may not have played there at all.
These two faces that have charmed the world of cricket, playing together 40 years of Test cricket and also many ODIs and IPL matches, have founded the ‘Cricket All Stars’ in order to globalise the game.
The Twenty20 matches are to be played on November 7, 11 and 14. The tournament has the blessing of the ICC.
“The Gods of Cricket Play On Cricket Soil For The First Time” announces the landing page of the All Stars website. The three matches will be played at baseball venues (Citi Field, New York; Minute Maid Park, Houston and Dodgers Stadium, Los Angeles). The sponsors who have tied up with the three-match series are StateFarm, MasterCard and UBER.
Stars to descend
The cricketers who will be seen in action are: Tendulkar, Warne, Sourav Ganguly, V.V.S. Laxman, Ajit Agarkar, Shaun Pollock, Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener, Jonty Rhodes, Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Swann, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose, Carl Hooper, Daniel Vettori, Ricky Ponting, Brad Haddin, Glenn McGrath, Michael Vaughan, Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq.
In an interview to The Hindu from Kochi, Tendulkar said his team will play in blue and gold and Warne’s team in purple. “The idea is to globalise cricket, travel, play cricket and make more friends.”
Excerpts:
How did this idea of ‘Cricket All Stars’ series germinate?
Last year we played the MCC bicentenary match at Lord’s; it was a sell-out event. There were some retired cricketers and we all thoroughly enjoyed being there. Then I got thinking on why not do something like that in different parts of the world so that retired cricketers can come and play. And that’s what Shane Warne was thinking too. So we got together and decided that we should travel around the world playing matches and also get the youngsters in those countries engaged in the game. We also talked of doing a few community clinics where kids will come and we will spend some time with them and coach them too.
So it was your idea of venturing into this sort of cricket for retired players?
Yes.
Aren’t there big fencing at the baseball venues? What will be the capacity like?
There would not be, probably, a high fencing; I don’t remember. But the security people will be there. I don’t think anyone jumped the fence when I played at the Skydom before. The capacity should be around 45,000.
With the Indian diaspora around, could you have the same Asian-like atmosphere there?
There are so many Asians in these areas; Indians, Sri Lankans and Pakistanis reside there. There are people from the Caribbean Islands and also Englishmen. They follow cricket, but they have not had access to live cricket. All these years, they have been following matches on the internet. The whole idea was to give them an opportunity to reconnect with their passion for the game and also for us to relive that passion.
Who will be the umpires? What about the telecast of the matches?
The umpires are Simon Taufel, Steve Davis and Marias Erasmus. The telecast will be like the one for all international matches.
What’s going to be the low- and high-end price of tickets?
I don’t know; that’s being done by a local company.
Are you going to play all three matches?
Yes, myself and Warne will play all three matches.
The three matches will be played at baseball venues in New York, Houston and Los Angeles
