2022 Legends League Cricket Masters
The 2022 Legends League Cricket Masters or LLC Masters was 1st season of Legends League Cricket Masters. It was a T20 cricket tournament featuring recently retired players, many of them former internationals. It was an international edition and 1st edition of LLC Masters.
| Dates | 20 January 2022 – 29 January 2022 |
|---|---|
| Administrator(s) | Absolute Legends Sports Pvt. Ltd. |
| Cricket format | T20 |
| Tournament format(s) | Double Round robin, Eliminators and Finals |
| Host(s) |  Oman |
| Champions | World Giants |
| Runners-up | Asia Lions |
| Participants | 3 |
| Matches | 7 |
| Player of the series |  Morne Morkel (World Giants) |
| Most runs |  Naman Ojha (India Maharajas) (259) |
| Most wickets |  Nuwan Kulasekara (8) (Asia Lions) Morne Morkel (World Giants) (8) |
| Official website | https://www.llct20.com |
For the first edition of the league, LLC Masters, legendary cricketers Virender Sehwag (India Maharajas),[1] Misbah ul Haq (Asia Lions), and Darren Sammy (World Giants) were chosen to be the captains of their respective teams.[2] The league featured many cricketing legends like Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kevin Pietersen, Irfan Pathan, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mohammad Kaif, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mohammad Yousuf amongst others, playing against each other to reignite famous cricketing rivalries of the recent past.[3] Shahid Afridi, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh were also slated to play in the league but had to withdraw owing to the pandemic or other personal reasons.
Oman Cricket hosted the tournament in Oman Cricket Academy Ground, Oman from 20 January 2022 to 29 January 2022.[4]
The league launched a special initiative towards Women's empowerment in Cricket, with an all-women match officials team officiating over the entirety of first edition, which was a first of its kind initiative in men's cricket.[5]
Venue
First edition of the league was hosted under the aegis of Oman Cricket at Oman Cricket Academy Ground[6][7]
Cricket Stadium (Muscat)
| Venue | City | Country | Capacity | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oman Cricket Academy Ground | Muscat | Oman | 3,000 | 7 (Finals) |
Broadcasters
The league broadcast on the leading Sports Television Networks, like Sony Pictures Sports Network and Sony Liv acquiring the rights for the India territory.[8] In Pakistan, TV rights were acquired by Geo Sports. In Sri Lanka, Supreme TV acquired the rights for the territory. Global Audio & Video streaming rights were acquired by Crictracker.[9]
Squads
| India Maharajas |
Asia Lions | World Giants |
|---|---|---|
|
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Although, initially named as captain of the India Maharajas, Virender Sehwag missed all matches of the first edition, after he was tested positive for COVID-19, just before the tournament started in Oman. Mohammed Kaif led the team in his absence.[10] Daniel Vettori also missed out due to Covid-related travel restrictions. Yuvraj Singh also missed out on the first edition of LLC owing to the birth of his child with his wife.[11] Harbhajan Singh also missed all the matches of the first edition after he tested positive for COVID-19.[12]
The League clashed with the PSL, resulting in a lot cricketers from Pakistan returning after the 1st round of matches. Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Hafeez,[13] Azhar Mahmood, Umar Gul played the first 2 matches for the Asia Lions, before returning to 2022 Pakistan Super League. Imran Tahir was only available for the first two matches, before leaving the World Giants' squad for prior commitments in the 2022 Pakistan Super League.[14]
Points table
Each team played the others only twice during the round-robin stage and Top two teams qualified for the final.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | World Giants | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1.008 |
| 2 | Asia Lions | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | −0.452 |
| 3 | India Maharajas | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | −0.437 |
Advanced to the final
Matches
1st match
Asia Lions 175/7 (20 overs) |
v |
India Maharajas 179/4 (19.1 overs) |
- India Maharajas won the toss and elected to field.
2nd match
World Giants 205/7 (20 overs) |
v |
Asia Lions 209/4 (19.2 overs) |
- Asia Lions won the toss and elected to field.
3rd match
India Maharajas 209/3 (20 overs) |
v |
World Giants 210/7 (19.3 overs) |
- World Giants won the toss and elected to field.
4th match
Asia Lions 193/4 (20 overs) |
v |
India Maharajas 157/8 (20 overs) |
- India Maharajas won the toss and elected to field.
5th match
Asia Lions 149/7 (20 overs) |
v |
World Giants 152/3 (13 overs) |
- World Giants won the toss and elected to field.
6th match
World Giants 228/5 (20 overs) |
v |
India Maharajas 223/7 (20 overs) |
- India Maharajas won the toss and elected to field.
Final
World Giants 256/5 (20 overs) |
v |
Asia Lions 231/8 (20 overs) |
- Asia Lions won the toss and elected to field.
- World Giants became the champions of the first season of Legends League Cricket.
Statistics
- Player of the tournament - Morne Morkel (World Giants)
- Most Runs - Naman Ojha (India Maharajas) (259)
- Most Wickets - Nuwan Kulasekara (8) (Asia Lions) and Morne Morkel (World Giants) (8)
References
- "Sehwag to lead India Maharajas". 18 January 2022.
- "Sehwag, Misbah & Sammy to lead". 18 January 2022.
- "Akhtar, Afridi, Jayasuriya named in Asia Lions". 23 December 2021.
- Staff, CricTracker (3 January 2022). "Legends League Cricket 2022 set to start on January 20, final to be played on January 29". CricTracker. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
- "All Women Officials Team make history at LLC". The Hindu. 27 January 2022.
- "Former Cricket Legends back on the grounds with LLC". The Hindu. 21 January 2022.
- "Legends League Cricket 2022: All You need to know". News 18.
- "Sony Sports Networks acquires India rights for Legends League Cricket". The Mint. 31 December 2021.
- "Crictracker acquires global Audio & Video streaming rights for Legends League Cricket". The Mint. 22 January 2022.
- "Sehwag to miss initial matches of Indian Maharajas, Kaif to lead". The Times of India. Retrieved 20 Jan 2022.
- "Yuvraj, Hazel welcome their first child". Crictracker. 25 January 2022.
- ayush.gupta. "Harbhajan Singh tests COVID positive, to miss Legends League Cricket". Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd. Retrieved 2022-09-09.
- Kumar, P. K. Ajith (22 January 2022). "LLC is a wonderful initiative". The Hindu.
- "Legends League Cricket 2022: Imran Tahir to miss remainder of tournament to take part in PSL 2022". Crictracker. 23 January 2022. Retrieved 24 Jan 2022.