The allure of Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne (with Brian Lara, Wasim Akram, Viru Sehwag, V.V.S. Laxman, Waqar Younis and a host of other stellar former players participating) among cricket lovers is so huge that the success of the All Stars matches in the United States is not difficult to predict.
The equity that these players enjoy in the game, along with aggressive and clever marketing, would make any aficionado of the sport drool, especially those who are not otherwise regularly part of the cricket universe.
Cricket lovers in the United States cut across many nationalities (which has been adequately reflected in the choice of players) though those from the Asian sub-continent and the Caribbeans proliferate. In that sense, there is a readymade market waiting to be tapped.
In fact, this is a market that cricket administrators, enterprenuers and players have been eyeing for a long while now to exploit though nobody has yet come out with a very effective formula.
I remember in 1989, after finishing the tour of West Indies, several Indian players (most of them active internationally but led by Sunil Gavaskar) flew to New York for a series of exhibition games against a team made up of Pakistan players under Imran Khan.
The matches were nondescript and played on grounds unfriendly for cricket. Given that it looked to cash in on the traditional Indo-Pak rivalry, the response was enthusiastic too without quite being a blockbuster.
But the outcome of that tour was quite nasty for the Indian players, most of whom were banned by the BCCI for going on an unsanctioned tour. In fact skipper Dilip Vengsarkar lost his captaincy. Forever.
In the interim, there have been many attempts to get US into the cricket fold, but success has been muted. Even the American Premier League, in which some full ICC members were stakeholders, could make no headway. Now comes this star-studded venture.
Getting past the first season should be a cinch, but Tendulkar and Warne will have to confront some challenges going ahead. Foremost among these is sustaining the appeal of retired players in action. The competitive edge that can engage audiences over a period of time is really the key.
Of course cricket lovers from the sub-continent and elsewhere are huge in number in the US — and growing. The market, so to speak, is fertile literally and metaphorically. How to exploit it profitably — for the enterprise as well as the sport though — will require robust vision and perseverance.
But the issue is not only about the All Stars tournament, as I understand. Tendulkar and Warne want to evangelise the sport globally, carry the gospel of cricket to different corners of the world. That is wholly laudable and who better than these two.
Tendulkar’s appeal, particularly, is of huge significance in this. His is the best-known face in the sport in the past 50-60 years in my opinion, and let’s face it, the biggest support for cricket will come from the 1.25 billion-strong Indian diaspora.
Concurrently — and perhaps more significantly — Tendulkar (and Warne and the other stars) must push to get cricket into the Olympics, which is the acme of a global sports event. Nothing can be bigger.
Tendulkar himself has an 'adjunct’ experience of what this means having participated in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. In fact, he was arguably the biggest star in those Games.
Every now and then, there is some push to get cricket into the Olympic fold, but it has got stymied for some reason despite strong support from players like Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist. Going by recent reports, Tendulkar and Warne have also come out in support of this.
The fact that so few countries played the sport and the time consumed by even ODIs, the practicability of having cricket in the Olympics was suspect. But even more marked was the reluctance of cricket boards to participate, BCCI being the biggest naysayer.
Twenty20 has made it logistically possible to fit cricket into the Olympics. The shortest format has also leveled out the playing field, as it were, which means that 16 teams of comparable strength can compete.
What it needs is a 'push’ from the most influential figures in the sport. Is there anybody better or bigger than Tendulkar to make this case and give cricket an unprecedented dimension?
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