Thank you, Cricket All-Stars
When I first heard about the Cricket All-Stars, the only thing that excited me, being an Indian, was to see Sachin Tendulkar take guard again. But then I saw the line-up with the likes of Warne, Lara, Ganguly, Wasim, McGrath, Walsh, Ambrose, Murali, Kallis and Donald and I thought to myself – this is not just about Sachin, it’s a chance to watch all these greats on one field, playing T20 cricket, something most of them missed during their prime!
The obvious big bonus was to see recent retirees Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Vettori and Sehwag in action. A well-thought, a fair draw was conducted to pick players for both the teams and it ended up with Sachin, Sehwag, Ganguly and Laxman in one team, and Warne, Ponting, Hayden and Symonds in the other.
This was India vs Australia in the late 90’s/ early 2000’s, with the exception that Sachin's Blasters also had Glenn McGrath.
Both teams seemed extremely strong, especially when you think of the players during their peak. They had produced performances that remain etched in the memories of the cricket fans forever. Over 5,000 wickets and tens of thousands of international runs in both teams! What remained to be seen was who had how much steam left.
On match-day, you could hear people chanting ‘Sachin Sachin’ not only in the stadium but also in the New York subway and at Willets Point Station – the madness was back! You could see some of the most craziest posters in the stadium. One of them even read, “God Blessed America” (with a picture of Sachin on the side). Nobody was interested in seeing who won or lost.
People expected to see Sachin’s vintage straight drive, Sehwag’s first-ball boundaries, Warne’s ‘Ball of the Century’, Wasim’s swing, Ganguly’s square cut, Laxman’s finesse, Lara’s back-foot shots, Jonty’s fielding, Walsh-Ambrose-Akhtar-Donald’s pace and bounce, Murali’s off-spin, Mahela’s late cut, Sanga’s cover drive, McGrath’s accuracy, Ponting’s pull-shots, Klusener’s fighting spirit, Hayden’s explosive batting, Moin’s banter behind the stumps, Vettori-Swann’s smart and attacking bowling, Vaughan’s batting from the ‘02-‘03 Ashes, Saqlain’s doosra, Agarkar’s late yorkers, and Kallis-Hooper-Symonds-Pollock’s all-round performance.
Even though some of them left the game more than a decade ago, the urge to go out and perform was very evident. The players gave their all on the makeshift cricket field, the 22 yards specially implanted for the event. Moreover, we got to see Warne vs Sachin and Lara and Akhtar vs Ponting. At one point, we also saw Murali vs Sanga and Kallis vs Pollock!
When you see some of these cricketers playing the way they did, you wonder why they ever retired! But then, a 3-match T20 series is much easier on the body than a bilateral tour, tri-series or the World Cup.
In all the excitement, I completely forgot about the actual reason this tournament was organized. Even if Americans amounted to only 2% of the crowd of 36,000 people, the event certainly created more waves than anybody could have imagined. Cricket was the real winner!
They say we can’t go back in time, but ‘God’ (read Sachin) made this happen. Even if it was for a few hours, I did get my childhood back. Thank you, Sachin, Warne and ‘All the Stars’ at the Cricket All-Stars.