In the climax of the Hollywood musical, Mary Poppins Returns, the eponymous English nanny turns the clock, the famed Big Ben of London, back by five minutes. Miss Poppins, played by the delightful Emily Blunt, has of course at her disposal magical powers to do that.
Over the next 10 days at the Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, the clock is set to be turned several times over, though not quite in the literal sense. But there could well be plenty of magic, with bat as well as ball. The inaugural edition of the Legends League Cricket could well be a blast from the past, as its commissioner Ravi Shastri hopes.
The three teams — India Maharajas, Asia Lions and World Giants — feature some of the all-time cricketing greats. In what is touted as the professional T20 league for retired cricketers, the teams will play each other twice before the final on January 29.
The Indian team includes Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Irfan Pathan and Nayan Mongia. The Asia Lions comprise men from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Lining up for the World Giants are Kevin Pietersen, Jonty Rhodes, Brett Lee, Daren Sammy, Imran Tahir, Herschelle Gibbs, Daniel Vettori, Morne Morkel, Brendan Taylor, Kevin O’Brien and Monty Panesar.
Some of the players have only recently retired and could be fit enough for different leagues around the world. Many of them may have bid goodbye and taken up coaching and commentating jobs, but they could still replay from memory those scintillating strokes or produce those magic balls.
The matches will be aired live on Sony Ten 1, Ten 3.
(The writer is in Muscat at the invitation of Legends League Cricket).
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