Brian Bedol, a sports television executive and investor in the event, called the “Cricket All-Star Series”, likened it to Pele’s arrival in the USA in the 1970s, or “if you had LeBron [James] and Michael Jordan doing a tour of Europe for the first time”. There will be three matches – in New York (Nov 7), Houston (Nov 11) and Los Angeles (Nov 14) – between Tendulkar’s “Sachin Blasters” and “Warne Warriors”.
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Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne will oppose together as captains in Three T20 exhibition tour which is scheduled in next month, in New York, Houston and Los Angeles and the exhibition is titled as ‘Cricket All-Stars Series 2015’.
Revealing his intention behind organising these games, Tendulkar asserted that it was done with a view to get the people in America excited about cricket.
Apart from Sachin and Shane Warne, others players include Michael Vaughan of England, Wasim Akram of Pakistan, Jacques Kallis of South Africa, Mahela Jayawardene of Sri Lanka and Brian Lara of West Indies. “They’re past their prime but for the old timers it’ll be fun to watch them”, Kumar Balakrishnan, an officer with the Staten Island Cricket Club was quoted as saying. “Americans are used to watching baseball, and it’s very similar to that”. I have so many friends in the United States and there are so many people who are cricket fans. Warne had said in June that Chicago’s Wrigley Field would also be a venue during the tour, but those plans were scrapped while an earlier proposal to play at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx had also been ditched in favor of Citi Field located in the New York City borough of Queens. “If Americans can start coming to the stadium, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them following cricket from here on”.
On October 6, 2015, Sachin Tendulkar said, “We want to leave an impression behind. I’m really looking forward to the matches in November, and helping to grow the sport of cricket in America”. “What’s all the fuss about?”
Despite cricket’s global popularity, the game has struggled to gain traction on this side of the Atlantic.
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Estimates have put America’s cricket fan base at 15 million. “It’s going to be a fast-paced event with a lot of runs”, he said.
