AFP, NEW YORK: 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.
The Australian spin king has jetted into New York with Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar to embark on an exhibition tour designed to get baseball-loving Americans up to speed with a sport few of them understand, play or ever watch. “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.
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. “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. Warne and Tendulkar will captain two sides -- Warne's Warriors and Sachin's Blasters -- that will showcase the talents of some of the greatest stars in world cricket, playing three Twenty20 three-hours games in New York, Houston and Los Angeles.
Tendulkar, who offers a softly-spoken bookish counterpart to Warne's tell-it-how-it-is drive, said their dream was to one day see an American team in the World Cup. “We're here to establish cricket in America" he said. "The next time we come here it would be nice to find an American kid with a cricket bat in his hand alongside a baseball bat.”
They will be doing cricket clinics for young children, interact with players as much as possible and invite women cricketers to their practice sessions as well, he said. Among the talent on the Blasters are Graeme Swann, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose, Glenn McGrath, Moin Khan and Shoaib Akhtar. Included in the Warriors are Ajit Agarkar, Matthew Hayden, Courtney Walsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan and Wasim Akram.