Brendon McCullum among new additions to the Cricket All Stars for the 2017 edition
The Cricket All Stars, which was played between Sachin Tendulkar’s Sachin Blasters and Shane Warne’s Warne Warriors across the United States of America last year in order to make the game more popular, will be held once again next year with the latter announcing the names of players who have confirmed their participation in the series.
Several players from last year will be seen once again in action, the likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Matthew Hayden, Michael Vaughan, Wasim Akram etc, who featured in last year’s competition as well.
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A few more established names have joined those who featured last year with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Kevin Pietersen, Mitchell Johnson set to take the field in the United States next year. The series is likely to be played in September or October 2017.
Warne’s good friend Michael Clarke has also confirmed his participation for the series as has former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming. The 2015 edition of the series saw matches take place in New York, Houston, and Los Angeles.
The first two games proved to be slightly low-scoring affairs, while the third one saw both teams amass 200+ scores. It was a 3-0 sweep for Warne’s Warriors last year, with the likes of Sangakkara featuring on his side and it will be interesting to see what happens next year.
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Huge crowds thronged all three venues and with the addition of more star power, one can surely expect more o the same next year as well. Following the conclusion of the All Stars, we also saw the Masters Champions League, which also had several retired stars, the likes of Virender Sehwag, Brett Lee, Graeme Smith, all of whom represented their respective T20 franchises, in matches played in the famous Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Players who have confirmed their participation for the 2017 All Stars:
• Brian Lara (WI)
• Shane Warne (AUS)
• Jacques Kallis (SA)
• Kevin Pietersen (ENG)
• Brendon McCullum (NZ)
• Glenn McGrath (AUS)
• Wasim Akram (PAK)
• Ricky Ponting (AUS)
• Shoaib Akhtar (PAK)
• Kumar Sangakkara (SL)
• Mahela Jayawardena (SL)
• Michael Clarke (AUS)
• Graeme Smith (SA)
• Shaun Pollock (SA)
• Michael Vaughan (ENG)
• Mitchell Johnson (AUS)
• Matthew Hayden (AUS)
• Adam Gilchrist (AUS)
• Graeme Swann (ENG)
• Jonty Rhodes (SA)
• Daniel Vettori (NZ)
• Darren Gough (ENG)
• Andrew Symonds (AUS)
• Allan Donald (SA)
• Stephen Fleming (NZ)