Shane Warne hopes to see more countries at the World Cup

Warne says the cricketers are doing their part

Shane Warne hopes the Cricket All-Stars tournament can persuade Americans to take up cricket and represent their country in a future World Cup, which consists of more than just the ICC full-member nations, reports ESPN Cricinfo.

Speaking at the press conference after his side beat Sachin’s Blasters by 57 runs in the second game at Houston, Warne said: “We all think it’s a global game and would love everyone to play the game of cricket.”

"All we can do is do our part," he said. "And that's why we're [the All-Stars] here in America playing the game of cricket and trying to promote the game of cricket as best we possibly can. We would love to see all the countries play in a World Cup but at the end of the day, the ICC are trying to do the best they can by the game of cricket.”

While Warne’s comments are certainly admirable, the fact that the ICC seems intent on reducing the number of teams that feature in the World Cup, shows that the formers players and the governing body aren’t on the same page.

On USA’s chances, the leg spinner said: "America only just missed out on the last [T20] World Cup. So hopefully we can see America playing in a World Cup down the track and maybe one of these kids or some of these guys that we’ve coached in New York or Houston or maybe in LA, we might see them in one of the World Cups down the track and that would be absolutely fantastic.”

While the crowd in Houston wasn’t as much as the first game in New York, Warne was full of praise for the facilities. “I think all of the players enjoyed the facilities at the stadium here. As an annual event, we’d love to come back to America every year. All of us, everywhere we’ve been so far, we’ve been welcomed.

While there have been rumours that the Cricket All-Stars plan to return to America annually, Warne wasn’t sure if it would to the three venues used for this series.

“I think everyone, the amount of those who’ve said thank you for bringing cricket to America. It’s our pleasure to be here, to have us in this great country and for all the players to be playing. Whether we come back to Houston? We hope we can because we've been treated wonderfully well here.”

Sachin Tendulkar said the process of bringing cricket to America is gradual and will take time. “I think we’ll have to take gradual steps. We’re not going to get 25,000 Americans watching overnight but it has to start somewhere. I'm sure among these spectators, even if there are 2% Americans, then that 2% is better than nothing.

“Over the years, cricket was not played here at this scale. Now slowly, slowly it's going to start. The whole idea is to try and motivate as many youngsters as possible to pick up a cricket bat, which we've been doing.“