Gemini Arabians 234 for three (Sangakkara 86, Levi 62)
Libra Legends 156 for eight (Ten Doeschate 53, Muralitharan 2-27, Mills 2-27)
Gemini Arabians won by 78 runs
DUBAI // Labelling Twenty20 cricket’s new competition for old cricketers a kind of Indian Premier League for old-age pensioners would be disrespectful to the greats who are involved.
That said, though, the Masters Champions League (MCL) did start before a doubting public at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday night.
Most of these players are retired for a reason, and selling tickets for a glorified exhibition league was never going to be a given.
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When the fireworks and lasers started on the opening ceremony, the attendance was little more than the sort that would usually come to watch Test cricket at this ground. It was that bad.
Danny Morrison, the former New Zealand bowler turned commentator, did his best to rouse some atmosphere in his role as MC. Instead, the cheerleading just bounced back off the empty seats.
And then the cricket started. Virender Sehwag, the Gemini Arabians captain, smacked the first ball of the competition into the stands, and suddenly the MCL seemed viable after all.
Earlier in the week, Sehwag had been clean bowled by a part-timer from his franchise owner’s staff team off the fourth ball he faced. The MCL team had lost that practice match.
Once the ring-of-fire floodlights started burning, the television cameras were switched on, and the producers shouted action, Sehwag seemed to remember he was Virender Sehwag.
He and Richard Levi put on 54 in 4.4 overs. Then Kumar Sangakkara came in. Libra Legends never stood a chance.
Gallery:
Sehwag and Sangakkara star in Gemini Arabians win in MCL opener – in pictures
Accepted wisdom says Sangakkara is still more than good enough to play international cricket.
The evidence of his remarkable 86 from 43 balls more than confirmed that sentiment. “Some of the shots he played, there aren’t words to describe them,” Levi said in a TV interview between innings.
It provided the basis for Gemini’s huge total of 234 for three. That was a higher score than in any of the 34 Twenty20 internationals played at this stadium to date. The 15 sixes they managed was also far more than in any of those games.
Much more of that sort of thing, and the spectators might come flocking. As it was, the crowd probably peaked at around 5,000, which looked lost in a stadium that seats 25,000.
That was someway short of the ambitious target the organisers had set.
“The expectation is to have a full house,” Zafar Shah, the founder of the MCL, had said ahead of the opening night.
“That would seal this tournament. If we could get a full house, that would be a serious endorsement.”
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Friday afternoon’s double-header might expect to attract more numbers, especially given the likes of Brian Lara, Adam Gilchrist and Graeme Smith will be involved.
Supporters and organisers alike will be hoping for a closer finish than the opening game threw up. It turned into a non-contest – if it was not already after Sangakkara’s efforts – when Kyle Mills accounted for Jacques Kallis, the Libra captain, for just 14, and Gemini went on to win at a canter.
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