I saw Bob Dylan at the Albert Hall the other day. Even the keenest fan of the 74-year-old legend approaches a gig with some trepidation: Will his voice be up to it? Will he be in a foul mood? Will we be able to find the emergency exits if he delves into his Born-Again Christian era?As it turned out, the great man was in fine voice and temper, purveying his recent, ruminative work, some Great American Songbook and some Sinatra songs. It was wise and wistful and beautifully delivered, as well as being age and vocal-range appropriate.I had the cheapest seats in the house, behind the stage in the choir. Front row, at about where second slip would be if Bob were batting right-handed.That feeling of being metres away from a person whose work has been a life-defining source of delight is a powerful one, and produced in me, I venture, the same sensations felt by the Indian expats who attended New York's Citi Field this weekend to watch Sachin Tendulkar, God himself, in the flesh.As it turned out, Sachin's Blasters were defeated by (Shane) Warne's Warriors in a T20 but, as ever for the Indian cricket fan, the result was of less importance than the chance to breathe the same air as Tendulkar and declare love. He and the Australian were joined by a who-was-who of cricket in the past couple of decades: for brevity's sake I won't list the Lara-Ponting-Murali lot but, if they've got 300 Test wickets or 30 tons, they were there.The New York Mets' 45000-seater baseball stadium was more than half-full of fans, largely of the South Asian, Caribbean and Australasian diasporas, watching Wasim Akram and Allan Donald open the bowling against Sachin and Virender Sehwag. This sounds brilliant and the sort of thing some of us imagine heaven to be.Ah, but time, cruel time. Shoaib Akhtar still gets it through at a clip, and nearly sconed Jacques Kallis, but age has not been so kind to some others. The military medium of Courtney Walsh, who is looking quite stately in middle age, and Sir Curtly Ambrose was spanked around for 66 in five overs, an indignity unimaginable a few years ago.Warne has been the impresario for the three matches (one in Houston and then LA later this week) and his stated aim has been "to bring cricket to America and globalise the sport".On the evidence of this half-speed, chummy charity match, that looks a hugely ambitious goal, if that is indeed the real aim, rather than making a few bucks and sinking a few cold ones Stateside with the old rivals.A few days ago, they were playing the World Series on this very turf; if cricket is seriously trying to break America, the affable shuffling efforts of these old geezers are not going to convince Joe Six-Pack that cricketball isn't a genteel powder-puff throwback...