Shoaib Akhtar enunciates his happiness over his inclusion in the Sachin Blasters
Shoaib Akhtar, the famous Pakistani speedster, has expressed his relief on being a part of Sachin Tendulkar’s team Sachin Blasters in the All-Stars 2015 league, NDTVSports reports.
The tournament is set to kick-start tonight at the Citi Field in New York.
Just four days back, the ‘Rawalpindi Express’ conveyed his feelings to the ‘Master Blaster’ that he wants to be a part of his team in the tournament, and that he is done facing him on the cricket field.
The composition of the two teams was decided by a random draw of lots, but the pacer’s fate was decided by a toss of the coin between the two captains, Sachin and Warne. The former won the toss and Akhtar embraced the Indian enthusiastically after it was confirmed that he will not face the Indian legend in the tournament.
"Thank God for that, that I am playing for Sachin and Sachin is playing for me. I am done bowling against him. I have been bowling against him for last 15 years and I was not looking forward to bowling against him, to be honest," the ex-Pakistan bowler said after the team compositions were decided.
"Tendulkar is a brutal force, he is the greatest player history has ever seen. I also never wanted to have a kind of India-Pakistan thing once again," he added.
An upbeat Akhtar heaped a lot of praise on his ex-adversary and called him a "great friend, great cricketer and an amazing person."
He also wants to have a sneak-peek into Tendulkar the captain’s strategies for the match and how he prepares for one, something he was devoid of until now because they never represented the same teams.
"I have not seen him [Tendulkar] as a captain. I will see what kind of strategy he liked to give me and he will get to know a little bit from me that as a fast bowler what I used to think running up to him," he said.
"I know people would love to see me bowling to Sachin, but I'm done, cannot do it," he added.
Following is the team-list for both the teams,
Sachin's Blasters: Sachin Tendulkar (captain), V.V.S Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Carl Hooper, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Moin Khan, Graeme Swann, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose.
Warne's Warriors: Shane Warne (captain), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Jonty Rhodes, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Ajit Agarkar.