Blast from the past: Legends of world cricket getting ready to go toe to toe across two leagues

Asia Cup ends in Dubai and before the World Cup starts in Australia. If it comes across as an overdose, don’t say we have not warned you. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are associated with the two different leagues in different ways.

Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Johnson, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Shane Watson, Muttiah Muralitharan, Brett Lee, Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis, Daniel Vettori, irfan Pathan… you name any retired cricketer and he will be there. It will be a big test of the popularity for the two tournaments – who will attract more crowds and more TRPs? Tendulkar’s Road Safety World Series (RSWS) is scheduled to be played from September 10 to October 1 in Kanpur, Raipur, Indore and Dehradun. It will be an international event – between countries.

Teams from Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies besides India are taking part in the tournament that is being event-managed by Sunil Gavaskar’s PMG. The Legends League Cricket, on the other hand, is an IPL-style franchise-based four-team league to be held across cities like Kolkata, Cuttack, New Delhi, Lucknow and Jodhpur. Adani Group, GMR Group, Manipal Group and Bhilwara Group have been sold the franchises and each of them has appointed their own support staff too – all legends of course.

This tournament runs from September 17 to October 5. This tournament has the ‘blessings’ of Sourav Ganguly, according to the organisers, if not his participation. The payment structures, although not fully revealed, also appear quite meaty, with the LLC fixing $ 1 million salary cap to each of its franchises, while the payouts range between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 5 crore in the Road Safety league, which has