Less than a week after New York Mets and Kansas Royals play three of the matches in World Series Major League Baseball Stadium at Citi Field, New Yorkers will hear the smack of leather on willow as international cricket icons, including Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne will headline Cricket All-Stars inaugural match in the same field in what is billed as the first historic display of cricketing legends from around the world on American soil.
The inaugural match between the two hand-picked teams— Tendulkar’s “Sachin’s Blasters” and Warne’s ‘Warne’s Warriors” – will kick off Nov. 7 at the 48,000-seat capacity stadium feature some of the best cricket players from round the world Ricky Ponting from Australia, Brian Lara from West Indies, Wasim Akram from Pakistan, Muttiah Muralitharan from Sri Lanka and Jonty Rhodes from South Africa, among others.
“The players for each team have not yet been selected, but will be picked, and will be announced in front of the media Nov. 5. We have 30 top crocket players from around the world here in New York,” Raj Ramakrishnan, managing director of Melbourne-based United Sports Association which is co-promoter of the event along with New York-based Leverage agency, told News India Times.
USA specializes in event production, hospitality, talent management, and licensing and media production. As part of the partnership, it will spearhead the production of several initiatives during the “Cricket All-Stars”, tour including VIP parties, galas and special functions with the players. They will also work seamlessly with Leverage Agency to produce the cricket matches, promote the tour and facilitate player engagement.
Ramakrishnan said he met with Ben Sturner, CEO and president of Leverage Agency last year in India during the initial discussions with Tendulkar about creating the Cricket All-Stars tour. “We’ve been working closely with Leverage ever since, and it’s great to create this joint partnership to bring these incredible cricket players to America for the first time,’ he said.
The Nov. 7 match will be followed by one at Minute Maid Park in Houston Nov. 11 and the finals of the three-match series will be played at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Nov. 14.
As part of this historic series, the captains want to give fans a chance to predict what their final rosters will be for the matches. Fans can cast their dream match-ups at http://cricketallstars2015.com/fantasy-league.php. Lucky winners who guess the final lineups are eligible for a special meet-and-greet with the players in NYC, tickets to the matches and autographed bats.
The format of all three matches will be T20, a much shorter and boisterous form of cricket with the games taking around three hours. All the matches will be telecast live on ESPN.
The sponsors for Cricket All-Stars events are MasterCard, State Farm, Uber and Pepsi, among many others.
During the players sojourn in New York a number of gala events, including one at One World Observatory Nov. 5 and another at Mariott Marquis Nov. 4, which will be attended by both Sachin and Shane, has been planned. Tendulkar is expected to arrive in New York Oct. 30, Sturner said.
“We will also be honoring we will be honoring MasterCard’s Chief Marketing Officer Raja Rajamannar as well as Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. A second gala at the hotel is slated for Nov. 4 where all the players and organizers will be present,” Sturner said.
Ahead of the games both Sachin and Shane said in statements that they were excited to be playing together and with other top players in the United States. “The guys that we’ve assembled to play in the Cricket All-Stars series are among the top players that you’d ever want to see,” said Shane Warne. “No matter how the final roster shapes up, I would consider that a fantasy team. It’s going to be fun to see how cricket fans vote for their perfect match-ups,” he said.
“I can’t wait to get on the same pitch with all of these amazing players when we come to America,” said Sachin Tendulkar. “I hope that fans will have fun with this contest and try to guess what the final lineups will be for my Blasters and Warne’s Warriors. Shane and I handpicked every player in the All-Stars pool, and I’d be honored to have any one of them on my team,” Tendulkar said.
But amid gala and other Bollywood dance music jamboree, Sachin will take time off to conduct a cricket clinic for local young cricket enthusiasts. Both Sturner and Ramakrishnan said that the ‘Little Master’ said that Nov. 6 at City Field for about an hour. About 100 youngsters are expected to join the clinic. “You know Sachin always loves to hold clinics/camps for young cricketers to share his knowledge and skills with young people. That is one of his passions. And that is why he found time to be on the fields with young people despite his busy schedule,” Ramakrishnan said.Similar clinics will also take place in Houston as well.
Asked whose idea was this to hold the matches in the U.S., Sturner said while he loves loved cricket and initially thought about holding an India-Pakistan match in the U.S, after meeting with Sachin and Shane the idea changed to bringing the best cricketers from around the world. “Sachin and Shane themselves are great drivers of the game and wanted to bring other players from other countries. They themselves had this idea as they want to globalize this game. The idea is a combination of mine and theirs and we just joined hands,” Sturner said, who visited India last year for initial talks with Sachin’s agent and went to Shanghai in May this year to have one-on-one talks with Sachin, who happened to be there at that time, said.
He said both the players worked together to get the other great players from around the world.
“Thanks to their help, we even got a guy who is coming from New Zealand who is coming here to make the pitch,” Sturner said.
The first ever cricket matches on American soil is not, however, going to a onetime affair. Ramakrishnan said that from now on this will take place every year in different parts of the U.S. to generate more passion and interest in people for the game. “With over 400 cricket clubs, including college cricket clubs, there is already a lot of interest in the game here thanks not just to the South Asians, but people from the Caribbean and Australian. “We are confident that this event this year will definitely give a fillip to the game and its popularity,” Ramakrishnan added.
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