“Present for cricket All-Star games in NYC, Houston and LA!”

Nov 08, 2015 Sports

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Colin E. H. Croft 

God is “De Boss”! As the older people always suggest; “God does not come, but he sends!”
Last week, He certainly sent me a tremendous blessing, for, out of the blue, I was contacted to be one of the Presenters/Commentators for the inaugural Cricket All-Stars 20-20 series in USA, featuring games in New York City; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles, California. Indeed, I was at Miami International airport, enroute to Trinidad & Tobago, then Guyana, when that call came.
Yes, I did complete that quick visit, a good one too, to be featured later, but, oh, what great fortune, as I had tried so very hard to be one of those Presenters/Commentators now in Sri Lanka covering West Indies ongoing tour there, but to no avail. My opportunities were coming from elsewhere!
So, by yesterday (Saturday), game No. 1 will have been completed at Citi-Field, Flushing Meadows, new home of USA baseball’s World Series 2015 beaten finalists, New York Mets, a stadium that normally holds 45,000, and which, in 2008, replaced the revered Shea Stadium where the Mets had played for 45 years. Citi-Field even hosted that last game in World Series 2015!
Next will be a game at Minute-Maid Park, Houston, capacity 42,000, home of major league baseball’s Houston Astros next Wednesday, and the final game at a really iconic building, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, home of Los Angeles Dodgers, capacity 56,000, next Saturday.
I certainly feel as if I am with angels in heaven now, as I am riding on a cricket cloud. Oh, what a feeling, for these games feature some of the best known names of the cricket world over the last twenty-five years, names that would fill lexicons of cricket anywhere. Forget that I had played good cricket for WI in my time. Just to be near these guys, as a cricket fan, has been fantastic!
The names roll off cricketing tongues like very juicy honey, with India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Australia’s Shane Warne as captains. But what a great supporting cast for these two super-stars!
Tendulkar’s squad – “Sachin’s Blasters” – is made up of: Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), Sir Curtly Ambrose (WI), Sourav Ganguly (India), Carl Hooper (WI), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Moin Khan (Pakistan), Lance Klusener (South Africa), Brian Lara (WI), VVS Laxman (India), Glenn Mc Grath (Australia), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Shaun Pollock (South Africa), Graeme Swann (England) and Virender Sehwag (India).
Warne’s squad – “Shane’s Warriors” – consists of: Ajit Agarkar (India), Wasim Akram (Pakistan), Allan Donald (South Africa), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Saqlain Mushtaq (Pakistan), Ricky Ponting (Australia), Jonty Rhodes (South Africa), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Andrew Syminds (Australia), Michael Vaughn (England), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand) and Courtney Walsh (West Indies).
Abacuses, smart phones and computers would probably explode trying to calculate how many runs and wickets those guys have made and taken over their careers for their respective countries.
Kerry Packer, instrumental in discovering white balls, colored clothing and night cricket, must be turning in his grave, for even he would not have envisaged such a collection of stars to be turning out in such style and grandeur in America.
Okay, most of these guys have not played much lately, even if some of them, such as Sangakkara, who has just retired, Swann, Pollock and Rhodes, not to mention the always slim “Ambi”, still look to be in fighting form. Their state of body does not matter. They are playing in USA!
The series’ press conference at Marriott’s Marquis Hotel in Times Square attracted media from all over the world, including, impressively, CNMG TV from Trinidad & Tobago, with proceedings handled expertly and efficiently, especially when superstars like Lara, Warne, Murali and Sachin were being sought. One had to sit back and admire real-world security and professionalism.
But, as Warne, who has not lost any of his charm or aggression put it, “America is ready for T-20 cricket. This is like bringing the Harlem Globe-Trotters of cricket back to America, as these are some of the most iconic cricketers the world has seen in the last several years. If we could provide that spark, entertainment and conviction that this sport can indeed continue to crack the American psyche, then there is no telling as to how high this thing could go. I cannot wait!”
Sachin was somewhat more philosophical, espousing the roll of cricket’s global ambassador, as he is, to the hilt: “One of my main reasons for coming out of retirement for this series is to continue to make the sport of cricket global. We are not in the USA to compete with any other sport. We are here to make cricket more popular. We want to win hearts, and we really think that Americans, who obviously love sports, will eventually want to fully embrace cricket too.”
Way before I migrated to USA in 1981, cricket has been trying desperately to find some niche in America’s sporting life. With this set of events next two weeks in New York, Texas and California, that catalyst will have been set, awaiting the rest of that cricketing equation, the American players. Now, we wait for the hoped-for eruptions. Enjoy!
E-mail address = [email protected]

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