What will be the emotion level for 80s and 90s kids if we say that Sachin and Sehwag goona open for India again? How it feels to see Zaheer and Agarkar sharing the new ball for India again. Yes, we also know that without no doubt that will be the news of the day. And not only this but if you get to know that these legends will be playing against the likes of greats likes Lara, Brett Lee, Johnny Rhodes, Chanderpaul, Muttiah Murlitharan and so many names to follow the excitement level goes beyond cloud nine. So the reason behind these legends are lining up is because of the Road Safety cause that is taking so much of lives. All these greats are united for the awareness about the road safety while driving.
The Background
The Unacdemy Road Safety World Series will be the 5-nation cricket tournament to stand for the awareness of Road Safety while driving. Every year almost 1.5-2 lakhs people loose thier lives due to road accidents and on an average one person dies on road in every 4 minutes due to the vehicular accidents. In last 5 years almost 65 lakhs people got disabled because of the road accidents. The legends from the 5 nations will be united to spread the awareness on it.
Participating Nations
The Unacdemy Road Safety World Series will comprises the legends form five nations i.e. Indian Legends, West Indies Legends, Australian Legends, Sri Lankan legends and the South African legends.
Tournament Schedule, Format and Venues
The tournament will be played from 7th March to 22nd March in a round-robin format in which all the teams will be playing against each other once before the top-2 teams will ne playing the final on 22nd March 2020. The venues will be the CCI Stadium(Mumbai), Wankhede Stadium(Mumbai), Dr. DY Patil Stadium(Mumbai) and the MCA Stadium(Pune). The finals will be played at the CCI Stadium in Mumbai.
The Schedule
Match 1 : March 7, 2020: India Legends vs West Indies Legends, Wankhede (Mumbai)
Match 2 : March 8, 2020: Australia Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends, Wankhede (Mumbai)
Match 3 : March 10, 2020: India Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends, DY Patil (Navi Mumbai)
Match 4 : March 11, 2020: West Indies Legends vs South Africa Legends, DY Patil (Navi Mumbai)
Match 5 : March 13, 2020: South Africa Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends, DY Patil (Navi Mumbai)
Match 6 : March 14, 2020: India Legends vs South Africa Legends, MCA Stadium (Pune)
Match 7 : March 16, 2020: Australia Legends vs West Indies Legends, MCA Stadium (Pune)
Match 8 : March 17, 2020: West Indies Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends, MCA Stadium (Pune)
Match 9 : March 19, 2020: Australia Legends vs South Africa Legends, DY Patil (Navi Mumbai)
Match 10 : March 20, 2020: India Legends vs Australia Legends, MCA Stadium (Pune)
Match 11 : March 22, 2020 : Finals, CCI Stadium (Mumbai)
The Squads
Indian Legends
Sachin Tendulkar (C), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan , Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar, Munaf Patel, Mohammad Kaif, Pragyan Ojha, Sairaj Bahutule, Sameer Dighe (WK)
Sri Lankan Legends
Tillakaratne Dilshan (C), Dulanjana Wijesinghe, Chamara Kapugedara, Chaminda Vaas, Farveez Maharoof, Marvan Atapattu, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Sachithra Senanayake, Thilan Tushara, Thilina Kandamby, Upul Chandana.
West Indies Legends
Brian Lara (c), Yohan Blake, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Adam Sanford, Carl Hooper, Danza Hyatt, Darren Ganga, Pedro Collins, Ricardo Powell, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Samuel Badree, Suleiman Benn.
South Africa Legends
Jonty Rhodes (C), Andrew Butch James, Andrew Hall, Garnett John Peter Kruger, J Rudolph, Albie Morkel, JJ Van Der Wath, Neil Rhodes, Lance Klusener, Martin Van Jaarsveld, Morne Van Wyk, Paul Harris, Ryan McLaren
Australian Legends
Brett Lee (c), Brad Hodge, Brett Geeves, Clint McKay, George Grean, Jason Krejza, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Reardon, Rob Quiney, Shane Lee, Travis Birt, Xavier Doherty.
No matter which team wins the tournament but with Legends like Sachin Tendulker Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Brett Lee, Shane Watson, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marvan Atapattu, Muttiah Muralitharan, Chaminda Vaas, Lance Klusener, Jonty Rhodes and many more in the the Cricket and the Public awareness will be the winners. This is the main objective behind this grand-tournament.
Former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar will be the commissioner of the tournament. As told by the sources the public response has been overwhelming till now and they are eagerly waiting for the start of Ticket Sales which is set to start by next week onwards.