Some of the greatest cricketing superstars of yesterday will roll back the years on Bermudian soil in the inaugural 20-20 World Cricket Classic next May.

The event ? given the nod by Government and the Bermuda Cricket Board ? will be hosted by Britain?s national-governing body for physical activity, the Get Fit Foundation (GEFF), as the showpiece of its international launch and will feature teams from England, the West Indies, Australia, Sir Lanka, India, New Zealand, South Africa and Bermuda.

All players will be aged 35 and over and must have been capped internationally, explained GEFF Communications Director Caroline Knox.

Former West Indies fast bowler Joel (Big Bird) Garner is among the stellar cast slated to participate.

?We are going to have the biggest names that cricket has ever known and we?ve got about 75 percent of them already confirmed with 11 months to go,? Knox told yesterday.

GEFF, which has a remit to halt the epidemic rise in obesity and inactivity along with attendant health issues such as diabetes, colon cancer and heart conditions, has decided to utilise this top-class event to highlight its mandate.

Knox, who once resided here, came to the World Rugby Classic last November and was ?so impressed with the Rugby Classic team and organisation? that it was determined Bermuda was the perfect location for a similar spectacle in cricket.

?We feel it?s a very strategic, geographic site for getting people from all the different countries that the players are coming from.

?We were going to have an international launch and we decided the World Cricket Classic would be a means to doing that. We?re going to have lots of health activities for people to do as well as watching cricket,? revealed Knox.

Organisers of the 20-20 tournament will partner with their counterparts from the Rugby Classic who will provide them with ?an infrastructure which obviously has been successful for rugby and therefore we know this event will hit the ground running as well?.

Bermuda will play host to future editions of the event but it?s not certain how often it will be held.

Further details will be disclosed at a Press conference with Premier Alex Scott at 2 p.m. on Thursday at the Cabinet Office.

Government leaders, BCB officials and Keith Pont, former Director of Development at the England and Wales Cricket Board who recently became GEFF?s Chief Executive, will attend the Press briefing.