Prime Minister Key takes on Warne

More than half a million dollars was raised for those affected by last month’s earthquake in New Zealand, as movie stars, cricketers and the New Zealand Prime Minister took the field in the Fill the Basin Twenty20 appeal match in Wellington on Sunday.

Among the big silver screen names present were actor – and cousin of former New Zealand captains Martin and Jeff Crowe – Russell Crowe and Ian McKellen, who shares a close association with New Zealand as part of the Lord of the Rings cast. As for the cricketers, Richard Hadlee, Stephen Fleming, Bruce Edgar, Andrew Jones, Nathan Astle, Mark Greatbatch, Geoff Allott, Rod Latham and Ewen Chatfield were all there.

The main attraction of the day though remained an over bowled between innings by Shane Warne to Prime Minister John Key. Key, who had supposedly had a ‘secret nets session’ on Saturday, whipped a low full toss for a boundary, for which $100,000 were donated to the cause. Well played Prime Minister!