Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara, widely considered the two best batsmen of their generation, were drawn on the same team for the first edition of the Cricket All Stars on Thursday (November 5). The draw, conducted in Times Square New York, saw 27 players assigned randomly to the two teams Sachin's Blasters and Warne's Warriors for the three-match series.
Besides Lara, Tendulkar also drew former international teammates Virender Sehwag, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. Among those drawn in the Blasters were Muttiah Muralitharan, Curtly Ambrose, Glenn McGrath and Shaun Pollock. Meanwhile, Shane Warne ended up with former colleagues Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Andrew Symonds while also drawing a dream bowling attack of Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram and Allan Donald.
With 26 of the 27 players allotted to either side, the two captains were left vying for last man Shoaib Akhtar, who joined the Blasters after captain Tendulkar won a coin toss to break the deadlock.
"We're going to go out there and play as hard as we possibly can, and we're going to win. Simple as that," said Warne after the draw. Warne also said the response to the tournament from the US public "had been overwhelming" and if all goes well, it could become an annual event.
He batted aside suggestions that the rules of cricket were too complicated for Americans to follow."When you take two minutes to concentrate on it, it's actually very simple," he said. "We're trying to hit the stumps and they're trying to hit it out of the park. It's not that hard."
The ICC-sanctioned matches will be played on drop-in pitches at major baseball fields in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
TEAM SQUADE
Sachin's Blasters: Sachin Tendulkar (c), VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Carl Hooper, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Moin Khan, Graeme Swann, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose
Warne's Warriors: Shane Warne (c), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Jonty Rhodes, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Ajit Agarkar
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