ICC XI v Asian Cricket Council XI to headline World Cricket Tsunami Appeal

A two match one day series between an ICC XI and an Asian XI sponsored by the Asian Cricket Council will be the centerpiece of the international cricket community's efforts to support the victims of the tsunami that devastated countries across the

Jonathan Rose

01-Jan-2005

The first match will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia on January 10, 2005 with the return leg to be played in a venue to be selected by the Asian Cricket Council on a date to be fixed in February or March.

ICC President, Ehsan Mani, said that the enormous goodwill across the cricket playing world had made the matches possible at such short notice.

"Like the rest of the world, the international cricket community is shocked at the scale of the devastation caused by this disaster," said Mr Mani.

"All of us, the players, the home boards and the regional and international governing bodies have been looking for a way to make a meaningful contribution to the massive effort that is required to help deal with the impact of this tragedy.

These matches along with other fund raising initiatives in other countries provide us with the way to make this contribution."

ACC President, Jagmohan Dalmiya, said the impact of the Tsunami on the Asian region had strengthened the ACC's resolve to stage the games.

"Our region has been devastated and the Asian Cricket Council has been seeking a way to use cricket to assist people to recover from this tragedy.

"ACC has already done some spade work and widespread participation is expected from the Asian countries especially the ACC countries. There is already an overwhelming response from some of the countries.

"I believe that these matches will be able to generate millions of dollars to be used to help rebuild people's lives.

Mr Thilanga Sumathipala, former President of Sri Lankan Cricket, one of the countries most affected by the tsunami said that the games were a welcome initiative.

"In my discussions with the International Cricket Council, I appealed for assistance in helping deal with this tragedy and these matches will provide much needed support for people affected by this disaster," said Mr Sumathipala.

Mr Mani also thanked Cricket Australia and the international players, including those from countries not affected by the disaster for their outstanding support for this initiative.

"The willingness of Cricket Australia and the international players to work with the other key stakeholders in international cricket is a critical component in being able to make this series happen and they deserve enormous credit for helping make these matches a reality," said Mr Mani.

The money raised from the Australian fund raising efforts will go to assist the global relief and development organization, World Vision which is dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide.

World Vision has staff across the Asian region and is providing food and Family Survival Kits to the countries devastated by the earthquake and tsunami with its staff working around the clock to assist people in the most devastated areas of India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand as they deal with the aftermath of the tsunami.

The ACC will determine how the money raised by the second match will be allocated to assist in the relief effort.

Australian broadcaster, Channel 9, has already committed to televising the first match live in Australia while negotiations have now been opened up with international broadcasters looking to secure the rights for the first match of the series in other markets, including Asia. An announcement on the successful broadcasters is expected in coming days.

Channel 9 will also use the match to promote a national telephone service for people around Australia who want to ring in a make a donation to World Vision's relief program.

Other fundraising initiatives from, around the cricket world include:

The Board of Control of Cricket in India has donated £120 000 to relief efforts.

The Australian Test team donated its AUS$ 17,000 prize money from the 3 mobile Melbourne Boxing Day Test to tsunami relief. A donation matches by Cricket Australia (CA) has made a matching donation to bring Australian cricket's initial donation to AUS$34,000.

The England team and its players association, the Professional Cricketers' Association has donated a total of £20 000 to assist with relief efforts.

The Indian team will donate their payments from one ODI match to the Indian Prime Minister's Relief Fund.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board has pledged the gate receipts from its up coming series against Zimbabwe, estimated at $10 000 to relief efforts.

Further initiatives are also planned including

Teams from Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa agreeing to donated signed memorabilia for auction in support of relief efforts

Collections are also planned during the New Year's Tests in both Australia and South Africa

Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd has pledged a donation and the South African mobile phone network MTN, a co-sponsor with Castle Lager of Test cricket, will donate the proceeds from its match day 'SMS the Scoreboard' phone line. A pledge line will also be in operation during the third Test match against England.

New Zealand Cricket will donate $1 from every ticket sold to the Twenty20 game to be played between Australia and New Zealand to tsunami relief while NZC's ticketing partner, Ticketek, will donate its share of the service fee on all the tickets for the unplayed matches directly to the World Vision Fund.

The ACC has appealed to it member countries to come forward with generous contributions, especially those that were not affected by this disaster.

NZC's apparel supplier and partner, Wstar, will donate a portion of the sale price of all product sold at ground during the forthcoming tour to New Zealand by Australia to the fund.

The affected areas include Sri Lanka and India which are ICC Full Members; Malaysia which has been an ICC Associate Member since 1967; and Thailand, the Maldives and Indonesia which are all ICC Affiliate Members.

For further information on World Vision or to donate directly to its relief fund visit www.wvi.org.