Cricket All Stars series to be back in 2017

They are back! During November 2015, quite a lot of cricket fans got a chance to re-live their childhood, albeit in slow-motion mode, when Sachin Blasters faced off against Warne Warriors. The retired All-stars played a set of three T20s in America in a bid to popularize the sport there.

And today Shane Warne announced that these Superstars will be back again to take us back in time. The legendary leg-spinner wrote in his Facebook feed that in 2017 the Cricket All-Stars have signed a few more stars.

The recent additions include the recently retired dynamic Brendon McCullum, the maverick Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Smith as well as Mitchell Johnson. This means that the fans can expect more fireworks thanks to signing of these explosive players. Mitch has faced a torrid time against Graeme Smith on Twitter. Now he can let the ball do the talking!

Michael Clarke, the 2015 World Cup winning Australian captain is also expected to play. Stephen Fleming was also featured in the list which has the likes of Kallis, Lara, Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.

Fans did lap up this event when All-stars toured America and played the exhibition matches in Los Angeles, Houston and New York. After a relatively underwhelming first two matches, the final match turned out to be most exciting of the lot with the result getting decided only in the last over.

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This event was followed by Masters Cricket League in Sharjah which didn’t have the same impact as the Cricket All-Stars.

These are the stars we can expect to take the field next year:

Brian Lara (WI)
Shane Warne (AUS)
Jacques Kallis (SA)
Kevin Pietersen (ENG)
Brendon McCullum (NZ)
Glenn McGrath (AUS)
Wasim Akram (PAK)
Ricky Ponting (AUS)
Shoaib Akhtar (PAK)
Kumar Sangakkara (SL)
MahelaJayawardena (SL)
Michael Clarke (AUS)
Graeme Smith (SA)
Shaun Pollock (SA)
Michael Vaughan (ENG)
Mitchell Johnson (AUS)
Matthew Hayden (AUS)
Adam Gilchrist (AUS)
Graeme Swann (ENG)
Jonty Rhodes (SA)
Daniel Vettori (NZ)
Darren Gough (ENG)
Andrew Symonds (AUS)
Allan Donald (SA)
Stephen Fleming (NZ)

It is interesting to note that no Indian player has been listed by Warne. Expect that to change, given the Indian audience interest last time around. Twitter and Facebook almost went into an emotional meltdown when Sachin and Sehwag opened the batting and faced Wasim Akram.  We may just get to see another showdown. Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar batting together one more time. Make it happen again.