When you see veterans play cricket, the result is unimportant, almost irrelevant. You want to see if your heroes still have it, you search for a glimpse of what had enraptured you. Your expectations are lower, you are just looking for that "one more time" sighting.
That is what a few people got wrong when they looked down at the legends tour of the USA. I've had people saying "wow, I saw Sachin, or Lara or Warne" and, to be honest, that is a large part of what this legends tour is about. One of the tweets I got said "I went to bed in 2015 and woke up in the 90s. Wow". A banner echoed a common sentiment: I've got my childhood back.
I was broadcasting on the second game in Hindi and, to be honest, I wasn't aware who was playing for which team at the start. It was irrelevant to me. Seeing Warne spin it again, or seeing Lara come down the wicket to him (if only once!) or watching Ganguly hit through the off-side or Shoaib Akhtar test his knees once again or, of course, Tendukar hit it anywhere.......that is what this tour is about.
But to me the most magical moment of all was watching Saqlain Mushtaq bowl a ball I hadn't seen him bowl in his prime. Instead of tossing it up, he seemed to push it down and like a flipper, it hurried off the track and trapped the great Tendulkar. A replay a couple of balls later showed him moving his fingers in explanation and he looked like he might have been playing an imaginary tabla.
All great fun with one to go on the cricket crazy west coast.
What is the future? That is for another post!
