When Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne came up with the idea of the All Stars T20 Tournament, cricket pundits would have had gone out to say that what is so special about it, it is just another T20 cricket tournament. But it was only till later when the rest of the details unveiled, the real interest of all the people peaked in. It is not just any other tournament, but all the retired players, the elites, the stars of cricket through the years will be participating and playing in the tournament.
There are only two teams in the tournament; one headed by Sachin and the other by Warne. Both the teams have players who have all retired from international or rather all forms of cricket and will be facing off each other which will be a great thing to see. We expect the cricket to be of the highest class here and the venue is also as much important, in the US of A.
United States is in the cricket playing arena, but it is still not that much of a big player, taking part in tournaments very scarcely. So the reason to play the All Stars series in the USA at some of the biggest baseball arenas in the country is going to be a big boost for the game in the country. The hopes are, when they see the game in action in its T20 avatar, the crowds should be excited to see all the action and hence there could in increase in the participation for the sport in the country.
The two teams Sachin’s Blasters and Warne’s Warriors will be squaring against each other in 3 T20 matches starting 7th November, 2015. We do not know about the crowds in the USA but the crowds here in India are surely very much interested to see their own cricket God Sachin take the ground once again. The rest of the world will also be very much glued as other greats like Wasim Akram, Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara, Muttiah Muralidharan, Jonty Rhodes and many many other cricketing greats will be participating in this tournament.
Very recently a small controversy had hit the scene when a couple of Indian players had taken voluntary retirement and it was thought about as they had purposefully done that to play in this tournament as they were not in the national team. Well it does seem to have some holding apparently but does not seem to be the complete reason as such too.
But all in all it is going to be an interesting tournament to follow as some of the biggest rivals of the old times will be sharing a dressing room here and also squaring off with some very good friends on the field. It is all in good sport and will be interesting to see how the tournament pans out and how much response it gets. We are sure the majority of the crowds will be Indians in the USA wanting to see the Little Master play up close.
rounak