Warne, Tendulkar taking cricket to the US
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SYDNEY: Australian Shane Warne and India's Sachin Tendulkar will captain two All-Star sides in a three-match Twenty20 series in the United States in a bid to spark interest in a sport alien to most Americans.
The ICC-sanctioned matches will be played on drop-in pitches at major baseball fields in New York, Houston and Los Angeles in November, with plenty of superstar talent on show.
Among the throng of cricketing greats signed up are Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose, Muttiah Muralitharan, Wasim Akram, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, Glenn McGrath and Brad Haddin.
“We've signed all the top players you'd ever want to see,” spin king Warne, who initiated the idea with Tendulkar, told cricket.com.au.
“I'm excited for cricket fans in the United States to be able to see these amazing players for the first time.”
A portion of proceeds from the series will go to the ICC for the development of cricket within the US with the organisation's chief executive David Richardson saying it “would help cricket to reach its significant potential in the USA”.
“We therefore wish them well and thank them for their enthusiasm to develop cricket outside of its traditional boundaries,” he added.
Batting great Tendulkar said he was excited about the prospect of taking the sport to a country more used to baseball and basketball.
“Americans are so passionate about sports, and I think there's a huge potential for cricket to take off,” he said.
“We're also planning some other events and festivities in each city so we can reach as many fans as possible.
“It would be great some day to see cricket bats right alongside the baseball bats, basketballs and soccer balls in America.”
The first match will be played on November 7 in New York.
Read more
On DawnNews
Comments (58) Closed
Oct 07, 2015 12:34pm
Nobody from Pakistan ?
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Oct 07, 2015 12:36pm
so it is going to be big 4 in future?
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Oct 07, 2015 12:36pm
Waiting to see .....specially sachin and wasim
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Oct 07, 2015 12:38pm
Sachin Sachin..... USA will be chanting that very soon.
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Oct 07, 2015 12:48pm
cricket is a dying sport. no one watches it anymore except in India.
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Oct 07, 2015 12:58pm
Sure will draw attention
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Oct 07, 2015 01:22pm
@osman lol you need help dude just go to Australia! People are crazy about cricket. Young boys are dying to play for its national team
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Oct 07, 2015 01:49pm
Americans do not take anything from the other countries. They have the habit of having their own.
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Oct 07, 2015 01:54pm
Yes great strategy ICC. Try to promote cricket in a country where 95% don't care about it all and ignore the plights of West Indies, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and the associates like Ireland where millions love cricket.
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Oct 07, 2015 02:01pm
cricket is only alive bcuz a billion indians love no other game but cricket but when they lose a match things get ugly!
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Oct 07, 2015 02:10pm
Two greatest cricketers, living legents.
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Oct 07, 2015 02:27pm
Its very hard to find space for cricket in US as they will never allow the national sport of British to make its way in US. And cricket is a British colonial game....
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Oct 07, 2015 02:45pm
Greatest player cricket has ever produced. Love you Sachin and Warne.
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Oct 07, 2015 02:46pm
@osman it's dying in Pakistan as no international cricket happen since 2007 Srilanka team attack incidence. But, outside it is becoming very popular. In the USA, and more and more team are coming out.
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Oct 07, 2015 02:54pm
The way big three are behaving, it will be only three of them playing. It's more of money game now rather then the cricket. I still love it but the spark is lost somewher.
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Oct 07, 2015 03:20pm
Nowadays everything in cricket is susceptible to allegations and speculations about match-fixing. Cricket is not a dying game, it is still popular but it is marred by followers' indiscipline , the glimpses of which we keep seeing from our neighbor country and every match is bound to be debated whether it was fixed or not.
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Oct 07, 2015 03:22pm
Warne himself was involved in fixing allegations back in late 90s, so it takes the fun away for those who want a clean entertainment, not a burden on mind if the players cheated or not
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Oct 07, 2015 04:39pm
@osman : Your reply in contect of this article suggest that atleast you are interested in cricket. Otherwise you would not have open this page.
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Oct 07, 2015 05:03pm
Realistically ICC need to stretch help towards Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan, Kenya, Nepal, UAE and Holland. They should provide more focus on ODIs and 20-20s to promote the game. I don't see test cricket going easily away, but don't see it easily expanding either. Will be great to see Sachin and Warne back in action.
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Oct 07, 2015 06:00pm
@lafanga ICC does care about West Indies, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Ireland, etc and will integrate them into cricket. Pakistan is a different matter though. And as far as Zimbabwe is concerned they should have listened to BCCI's advice and avoided pakistan. Now there will be a price to pay.
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Oct 07, 2015 06:04pm
This will not work. Only expatriates will be interested not Americans. Sports in America are very very big business. Unless you invest billions to entertain it will not work. Just look at MLS soccer, it only worked once they started spending billions in making stadiums with big name players. MMA only worked after they signed big fights with big venues in places like Vegas. Before that Strike Force and Ulimate Fighting were all failures.
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Oct 07, 2015 06:47pm
Smart move ! Indian, Pakistani, Bangladesi, Srilankans settled there are enough to fill the stadium.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:04pm
Wasting money is US, the immigrant crowd will come to watch the game but Cricket in USA will never flourish. Americans are heavily involved and busy with their football, basketball and baseball series they will less care about learning or playing Cricket.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:10pm
I don't think it can compare with NFL.
They mention about baseball and basketball and looks like they are unaware of American foot ball,
In future many years forget about taking main stage.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:17pm
Cricket is already in US. These two are just looking for commercial interests nothing more.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:19pm
Dont know whose idea is this...but its waste of time. Americans love their football and baseball.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:20pm
Even in UK football is the fav. sport.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:23pm
Both are great ambassadors of cricket. I wish a Pakistani could also do the same.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:33pm
The fact is Americans are not interested watching cricket they will be too busy watching Football and Basketball. I bet most of the crowd will be Indians and Pakistanis.
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Oct 07, 2015 07:52pm
Cricket promotion without Afridi and big hitters like him??? Failed idea..... No one understands leg spin, different variety of bowling etc.. Just the big hits are going to be the excitement...
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Oct 07, 2015 08:26pm
@osman - Is cricket a dying sport in Pakistan ? No cricket being played in Pakistan for so long could not have had so much of impact on Pakistan cricket. I understand that Najam Sethi is starting Pakistan Super league in Pakistan. Good Luck to him. Cricket is actually becoming more and more popular in lot of countries apart from 10 main test playing countries and 20+ associate countries in West Asia, Africa,Europe and North America.
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Oct 07, 2015 08:29pm
@osman obviously it will die in the countries where cricketers are attacked ... Cricket should be treated like an industry instead just like sport... there are so many jobs that have been generated due to IPL in India, Pakisthan should think of creating such niche markets, especially when people are passionate about it, you can manage to draw huge $$ if managed properly and SAFELY
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Oct 07, 2015 08:31pm
@Kamal Pasha u r right
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Oct 07, 2015 08:40pm
@smash "as far as Zimbabwe is concerned they should have listened to BCCI's advice and avoided pakistan. Now there will be a price to pay"
So you admit that BCCI is just a bully who threatened Zimbabwe with SMS messages and phone calls not to visit Pakistan and it's not just a conspiracy theory.
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Oct 07, 2015 08:42pm
@Very Touchy it's a line up of retired greats,are u suggesting Afridi retire to play this promotional event in US.
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Oct 07, 2015 08:48pm
@Rohit Sharma "Greatest player cricket has ever produced. Love you Sachin"
Wrong. My vote goes to Viv Richards. When Viv was part of West Indies, they dominated the game everywhere. Sachin doesn't even come close to it. What good are one or two centuries in a match if your team does not win it?
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Oct 07, 2015 09:04pm
They dont even like soccer that much here, do you think they will like your test one day and test cricket
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Oct 07, 2015 09:21pm
Love SACHIN,I miss your classy & artistic strokes.
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Oct 07, 2015 09:38pm
@A common pakistani so was akram
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Oct 07, 2015 09:43pm
It would have become great idea to promote if Wasim Akram and Shane Warne would have been in forefront . Cricket then would have not been dying sport and americans would taken this seriously and nobody would have suspected any irregularity.
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Oct 07, 2015 09:50pm
When athletes like Lebron and Gronk start playing cricket, us south asians can kiss cricket goodbye.
Lucky for us though that cricket will never take root in US. There just isn't enough time to accommodate yet another sport. Soccer has been trying to enter for more than 20 years and remains a fringe sport at best.
Go Pats!
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Oct 07, 2015 09:55pm
It is a good initiative but unfortunately local Americans care less for cricket. Cricket is already played on different levels here in USA, but to initiate an interest within local Americans will be a hard sell. Also all these three matches will be witnessed by desi audience rather by local americans which will kill the main purpose of the matches.
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Oct 08, 2015 12:40am
@Pixell Wasim Akram is there
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Oct 08, 2015 12:40am
@Rashid Ishaq No chance.
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Oct 08, 2015 12:42am
You cannot make Cricket mainstream unless you start playing it at high schools and then make a transition plan to play it in minor and major league. Americans care less about representing their "country" when it comes to sport. Their allegiance is to their home team (Houston, NY, Dallas, Tampa etc.). Build it at high school, give those kids a chance to showcase at major/minor events and it will take off. It will take 15 to 20 years but it will take off. Unfortunately, the administration is looking for short term profit which never bear results.
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Oct 08, 2015 12:50am
An attempt in futility.
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Oct 08, 2015 01:07am
@Pixell Wasim Akram
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Oct 08, 2015 01:11am
I have number of Australian friends they even don't know much about cricket. they live football. although I like cricket besides knowing its just s wastage of time
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Oct 08, 2015 01:35am
@Pixell Wasim Akram
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Oct 08, 2015 01:40am
@smash this price will be paid by the game of Cricket and time will come when there will be only three..
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Oct 08, 2015 02:23am
Yeah maybe if USA didnt have NFL, MLB, NBA, NASCAR, MLS they would have been interested in cricket. lol
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Oct 08, 2015 02:43am
I dont know how they will play cricket in NY in Nov. its super cold
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Oct 08, 2015 03:36am
@neo many, anyway mentioned warne because this article got his name. Something ought to be done to expunge corruption from cricket
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Oct 08, 2015 06:15am
no way
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Oct 08, 2015 07:04am
People will only come to see Sachin!
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Oct 08, 2015 09:16am
@jawad
You really need to get a life my friend
Please upgrade your knowleage about sports and then comment
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Oct 08, 2015 09:21am
@lafanga
ICC is trying to expand cricket here .. USA is big market .. if Basket ball is so famous there .. hardly it will take to have a solid cricket loving fan base once it is well publicized ... great initiative by ICC
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Oct 08, 2015 10:03am
NFL (Football), NBA (Basketball), MLB(Baseball), NHL (Ice Hockey) are the sports mostly watched and followed and maybe some "quasi/general" interest in MLS(Soccer), this leaves no room for Cricket... unless it is started at grass roots from highschool level.
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