In pics: Shane Warne, Sachin Tendulkar all set to take US by storm
<p><strong>New York: </strong><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">David Beckham is the millionaire model, sportsman and nice guy credited with helping make soccer more popular in the United States. And now Shane Warne wants to do the same for cricket.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">"Soccer wasn't big. David Beckham came over here and suddenly the sport is starting to grow," Warne told reporters at a hotel in Times Square ahead of the first All-Stars game on Saturday.</span></p><p>Cricket is second only to soccer in terms of world popularity, he said, no matter that baseball and American football reign supreme in the United States.</p><p>"We don't think it's a gamble, we think Americans are ready," said Warne in a nod to his sideline as a poker player.</p><p>They will be doing cricket clinics for young children, interact with players as much as possible and invite women cricketers to their practise sessions as well, Tendulkar said.</p><p>The ICC-sanctioned matches will be played on drop-in pitches at major baseball fields in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.</p><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/cricketallstars/posts/1013049575384391" data-width="500"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/cricketallstars/posts/1013049575384391"><p>Quick trip to CitiField with the team. Only #2daystogo - don't miss history being made as we bring big time #cricket to the US. Tickets at www.cricketallstars2015.com</p>Posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cricketallstars/">Cricket All Stars</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cricketallstars/posts/1013049575384391">Thursday, 5 November 2015</a></blockquote></div></div><p>A portion of the proceeds will go to the ICC for the development of cricket within the United States.</p><p>Warne said the response "had been overwhelming" and if all goes well, it could become an annual event.</p><p>He batted aside suggestions that the rules of cricket were too complicated for Americans to follow.</p><p><strong>Real opportunity:</strong></p><p>"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."</p><p>But most spectators are widely expected to be expatriates from cricket-loving nations. The vast majority of the reporters at Thursday's press conference were from overseas.</p><p>New York in particular is home to the largest concentration of immigrants in the United States from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka where cricket is a national obsession.</p><p>Ponting, who led Australia to victory at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, said he owed it to the game to help it grow on virgin ground -- not just in the United States, but also in China.</p><p>"We're all hoping we can go out there and do the right thing by the game and make sure that the American sport-loving public can enjoy what we do," he told AFP.</p><p>Shaun Pollock, ex South Africa captain, said he could never have imagined one day playing cricket in a US baseball stadium.</p><p>"Americans in general would probably say that our game's boring, he admitted. "It's a real opportunity," he told AFP.</p><p>"They can come in their own stadiums where they usually watch the baseball, sit in the same seats, eat the same hot dogs that they normally eat and compare the entertainment and actually say to themselves well may be this game of cricket is not so bad."</p><p style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px; text-align: center;"> </p><p style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dc.dcapp.view&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5kYy5kY2FwcC52aWV3Il0." style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px; text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img width: 150px; height: 53px; src="http://dd508hmafkqws.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_node_view/public/Android.png"></a><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px; text-align: center;"> </span><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/deccan-chronicle-for-iphone/id478674381?mt=8" style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px; text-align: center;" target="_blank"><img font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em; width: 150px; height: 53px; src="http://dd508hmafkqws.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_node_view/public/Apple.png"></a></p><p style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 20.0063px;"><strong><em><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dc.dcapp.view&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5kYy5kY2FwcC52aWV3Il0." style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">Android</a><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> and </span><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/deccan-chronicle-for-iphone/id478674381?mt=8" style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;">iOS</a><span style="font-size: 13.008px; line-height: 1.538em;"> to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.</span></em></strong></p>
Next Story
