Road Safety World Series: Schedule, teams, venue and all you need to know about T20 tournament

Almost a year after being suspended due to the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the Road Safety World Series, which features some former international cricket stars, is all set to resume, this time in Raipur. The tournament will boast of icons of the game including Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Muttiah Muralitharan and many more legends of six teams — England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and hosts India. Initially, Australia Legends too had taken part in the tournament last year, but pulled out in February owing to travel restrictions. While Bangladesh replaced the Aussies, England, led by Kevin Pietersen, were included as the sixth team. The tournament will pick up from where it left off, with the first match after resumption being held between India Legends and Bangladesh Legends on 5 March. When the tournament was halted on 11 March last year, India were leading the table with eight points (two wins), ahead of South Africa (four points) and Sri Lanka (Four points) All teams play each other once in a round-robin format and will be followed by the semi-finals and final. The final is scheduled to be held on 21 March. “As cricket is the most followed sport in the country and cricketers are looked upon as idols, this League aims to influence and change people’s mind set towards their behaviour on the roads,” an official press release was quoted as saying. “The Road Safety World Series is an initiative by Road Safety Cell of Maharashtra in association with Professional Management Group (PMG) spearheaded by Little Master Sunil Gavaskar as the Commissioner of the Series and Sachin Tendulkar is the Brand Ambassador of the League. Education technology platform Unacademy is the title sponsor and Viacom18 is the broadcast partner of the league,” the release added. All matches start at 7 PM IST and will be held at the newly-built Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur, which occupies upto 65,000 people. The stadium will be open for 50 per cent attendance as per the Standard operating Procedure (SoP) issued by the Central Government. Here’s the full schedule of the tournament:

Block your calendar for these dates!
The @Unacademy #RoadSafetyWorldSeries returns on 5th March 2021! 🏏 It's going to be action unlimited with legends coming together for the cause of #RoadSafety.

🎟️Get your tickets on https://t.co/Puc2pfX0VJ#YehJungHaiLegendary pic.twitter.com/Kt6PiGjugm

— Road Safety World Series (@RSWorldSeries) February 23, 2021

Squads: India Legends: Sachin Tendulkar (Captain), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Mohammed Kaif, Naman Ojha, Zaheer Khan, Pragyan Ojha, Noel David, Munaf Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Manpreet Gony. South Africa Legends: Jonty Rhodes (Captain), Morne Van Wyk, Andrew Puttick, Thandi Tshabalala, Alviro Petersen,  Loots Bosman, Llyod Norris Jones, Zander de Bruyn, Monde Zondeki, Garnett Kruger, Roger Telemachus, Makhaya Ntini, Justin Kemp, Nicky Boje. West Indies Legends: Brian Lara (Captain), Adam Sanford, Carl Hooper, Dwayne Smith, Dinanath Ramnarine, Ryan Austin, William Perkins, Mahendra Nagamootoo, Ridley Jacobs, Narsingh Deonarine, Tino Best, Sulieman Benn, Pedro Collins. England Legends: Kevin Pietersen (Captain), Nick Compton, Owais Shah, Philip Mustard, Monty Panesar, Kabir Ali, Usman Afzaal, Matthew Hoggard, James Tindall, Chris Tremlett, Sajid Mahmood, James Tredwell, Johnathan Trott, Ryan Sidebottom, Chris Schoefield. Sri Lanka Legends: Tillakaratne Dilshan (Captain), Sanath Jayasuriya,  Upul Tharanga, Chinthaka Jayasinghe, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekara, Russel Arnold, Chamara Silva,  Ajantha Mendis, Farveez Maharoof, Manjula Prasad, Malinda Warnapura, Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Chamara Kapugedra, Dulanjana Wijesinghe. Bangladesh Legends: Mohammad Rafique (Captain), Mushfiqur Rahman,  Khaled Mahmud, Mohammed Sharif, ANM Mamun Ur Rashed, Nafees Iqbal, Abdur Razzak, Hannan Sarker, Javed Omar, Khaled Mashud,  Rajin Saleh, Mehrab Hossain, Aftab Ahmed, Alamgir Kabir. Which channels will telecast the Road Safety World Series? All matches will be LIVE on COLORS Cineplex, COLORS Kannada Cinema, FTA channel Rishtey Cineplex and live stream on VOOT and Jio.