“He (Sachin) got stuck with Bombay cricket”. Talking about the series, Tendulkar said it aims to globalise cricket, which is the second most popular sport in the world.
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Tendulkar said while it was not possible to play a long series, the retired players felt it is feasible to play three-four games. We want to interact with spectators, go out and give them a few quality cricket to watch. They enjoyed staying in Mumbai, but not playing against Mumbai. Chappell had recently commented on the upcoming Cricket All Stars 2015 tournament saying that nobody would be interested in watching retired cricketers play.
“Sachin was clearly ahead of his time but he did not grow as I wanted him to grow”. I think he should have spent more time with Vivian Richards than a few of the Bombay guys who played just neat and straight cricket. Gavaskar used to say that I should have scored 5,000 runs more than what I did. He cited the example of several of his friends who had come to the U.S. in the 1990s and had no idea about American games like baseball.
The format will be T20, a much shorter and boisterous form of cricket with the games taking around three hours instead of multiple days. “Now I’m asking my Indian friends to reciprocate that”. A lot of Northern players disliked us. “The feedback has been unbelievable”.
Warne also posted an image on Instagram of the drop-in wicket for this weekend’s match on its way to Citi Field.
The league of the veterans – Cricket All Stars – starts November 7 and both Warne and Tendulkar are doing the promotions themselves in the US. Warne said he along with Tendulkar know that the Americans are passionate about sports. Tendulkar added, “People will always have opinions, it does not mean it is the right opinion”.
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“Sachin’s Blasters” and “Warne’s Warriors” will feature a few of the best players to ever play cricket hailing from eight different countries including Ricky Ponting (Australia), Brian Lara (West Indies), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Wasim Akram (Pakistan), Jonty Rhodes (South Africa) and Michael Vaughan (England), among others. “It is not going to be a friendly match”. We will play to win.
