Warne and Tendulkar All-Stars Series Could Become Something Great
In the late 1800s, WG Grace toured North America with a group of amateur cricket players. Since then, cricket has been played in America in dribs and drabs.
New Zealand and the West Indies played a Twenty20 series there as recently as 2012. America might have a long way to go to play with the big boys on the international stage, but that does not mean that cricket is alien to the public.
Yet, when reports first surfaced of the Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne All-Stars Series, that is exactly the kind of tone the conversation took.
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When the concept was launched, Tendulkar was quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "The dream is to bring cricket to America, and if we come back next year and see just one American kid with a cricket bat in his hands, we'll think it has been a success."
Warne added:
""David Beckham came here and soccer started to grow – we're trying to do something similar with cricket. We all know how passionate Americans are about sport, they just love their sport, and we need to educate them about the second most popular sport in the world. We don't think it's a risk or a gamble – we think America is ready."
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This tone continued in the lead up to the series and, at times, during the commentary on matches, and that is perhaps the only thing problematic with the whole event.
The series had the right intentions, but to call it innovation or “taking the game to America” is a fallacy.
Cricket is alive and well in America—from Compton to New York, with expat communities having played the game and introduced it to locals for decades. To suggest that a group of retired cricketers are suddenly going to globalise the game and introduce it to a whole new audience borders on incredible arrogance.
And it’s a great shame, because for all the awkwardness of playing on baseball pitches, the series was good fun overall. Many younger fans never had the privilege of watching some of the big names who played in the tournament. Many of those youngsters now live in America and got to watch some of their retired heroes in the flesh. But watching on TV was just as much fun.
Curtly Ambrose might not have the express pace he once did, but there is something intriguing and special about watching a 50-year old great trying to crank it up. Seeing some of the leading players from the 1990s brought back only good memories from when they were still in their pomp.
Watching players like Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara, who recently retired from the international scene but are still playing domestically, makes you wonder why they couldn’t just carry on playing. Not once did it feel garish or like a circus, just like T20 tournaments so often can.
To achieve that takes something really special. Overall, it was a slick production with plenty of potential, and Warne has suggested he has big plans.
In an interview with cricket.com.au Warne said:
""We've signed 28 players for 156 games over three years.
"They'll be in America and somewhere else – we're still working out where that will be. We've had some offers from Canada, we've had some offers from Abu Dhabi from the tourism people wanting us to come.
"Hopefully one day we can come to Australia, go to England, India, all the cricket-playing nations.”
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Turning the All-Stars Series into a travelling show has great potential, not just for the organisers, but for the players involved, too.
Many of the older players never had the luxury of earning T20 coin when their careers dwindled down. This series offers them just that, and if they can earn some money while making fans happy, who are we to argue?
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