Legends, one last time!
“I’m going to bed having nightmares of Sachin just running down the wicket and belting me back over the head for six. He was unstoppable. I don’t think anyone, apart from Don Bradman, is in the same class as Sachin Tendulkar. He is just an amazing player.” The first half is a bit humoristic while the second half is as true as sunrise. While Shane Warne may have been misquoted about what he actually wanted to say, the statement quite easily sums up the man every batsman wants to be. Regardless of what transpired on the field, Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne still remain the best of friends. And, here they are, back with cricket which ironically would be everything but cricket.
When Cricket All-Stars 2015 takes place, it’ll only be fair to say that it is going to be a breeding house for cricket enthusiasts. Viewers, Spectators, Commentators, Statisticians and Pundits can consider themselves lucky to be able to experience it. In High School, me and my friends had a running joke – any cricketer who was already a legend, was peculiar, was on the verge of greatness or was a favourite of one of us, we used to call him “Sir”. Needless to say, this event is full of ‘Sirs’.
Coming to the informative part of it, Cricket All-Stars 2015 is an ensemble cricketing event featuring the world’s greatest (excuse me for using such a clichéd word) cricketers. Sachin’s Blasters and Warne’s Warriors are the two teams that will play 3 exhibition T20 matches in the USA across New York, Houston and Los Angeles in what will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Americans. The 11-day event is laced with Gala dinners, fan events, etc.
Here is the main part, though. 30 players have been confirmed. Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Agarkar, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusner, Jacques Kallis, 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, Andrew Symonds, Glenn McGrath, Michael Vaughan, Wasim Akram, Moin Khan, Virender Sehwag, Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq. System Overload, isn’t it? Mind you, this cast contains living legends from each of top 8 cricketing nations.
One question that surround this event is – “Is this a throwback of the most amazing memories of cricket or an opportunity of new ones?”. A kid born in the 90s lived through the playing career of each of these legends and witnessed some of the most important battles and duels in the history of cricket. Be it Warne vs Tendulkar, Muralitharan vs Lara, Akhtar vs Tendulkar, Akram vs Tendulkar or be it any other duel, cricket is going to be the winner here. When these legends play under one single roof, no single player is going to be under the spotlight.
The cast is full of bowlers with 10745 international wickets among them and batsmen with 279198 international runs among them. That amounts to quite a figure, huh! Now, when I type this, the teams haven’t been released yet. But, it looks like quite a battle between the bowlers and the batsmen.
I feel that the players who will outperform the legends are the recently retired players. Don’t be surprised if you see Kumar Sangakkara and Virender Sehwag among runs instead of Lara and Sachin. Don’t be surprised if you see Graeme Swann taking more wickets than Shane Warne himself. Lack of match practice in the sporting arena takes quite a toll on your form and athletes are unable to replicate what they did in their prime. Pace will have dropped, running between the wickets will be slow, fielding will be sloppy and batting wouldn’t quite be the way it used to be. But, against that, we have these 30 players competing against each other. It’s just more than what one could ask for!
It is simply going to be an irresistible and edge-of-the seat thriller as some of these legends play a T20 match for the very first time. Cricket fans are in for some classic, vintage action as some classic, vintage players take field for cricket!
