The fans will have an opportunity to see the stars of yesteryear in action once again as the likes of Virender Sehwag, and Shahid Afridi will grace the field during an upcoming tournament which will see each side playing only ten overs.
The tournament, which is calling itself as ‘cricket’s new revolution’ will witness matches lasting 90 minutes like football. The competition will take place in Sharjah between December 21-24. The four-day tournament called T10 Cricket League will see six teams battling it out. The tournament, backed by the Emirates Cricket Board and T10 Sports Management, will be officially launched next Monday.
In addition to having 10-overs a side, the tournament will also see some other interesting innovations too like breaks after five overs during which flash mobs will entertain the crowd. Not only that, the organisers have even planned to make the dot balls attractive to the group as there will also be people dressed as statues which will stalk the boundary and remain still after every dot ball.
Meanwhile, each six-team will have one icon player, and with the tournament being planned to keep the subcontinental fans in mind, 4 out of six icons are Asian- Bangladesh star Shakib Al Hasan and three former players- Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, India’s Virender Sehwag and Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara. The only non-Asian icons are England captain Eoin Morgan and West Indies star, Chris Gayle.
The organisers of the tournament are looking to revolutionise the game, and they want to achieve it by decreasing the span of the game and implementing several entertaining acts. Justifying their decision behind the new format, the organisers through their website stated:
“We believe that cricket, with its billions of followers, is ready to move to this quick and fun-filled version. The world’s best sporting events – like soccer, volleyball, basketball – are all 90 minutes of action.“