Sri Lanka To Play World XI For Charity Match

Sri Lanka Cricket will host a T20 charity match, featuring players from around the world, for the benefit of "disaster-affected children", in Colombo, on September 8. With floods and landslides having ravaged southern and western regions of Sri Lanka in May, and a drought ongoing in the north, the board has engaged the use of its charity arm: Cricket Aid. SLC CEO Ashley de Silva said the exhibition match will feature a World XI and a Sri Lanka XI, both comprising past and present players.

"All the funds raised through this event will go to Cricket Aid, not only to support the disaster affected children, plus there were a lot of areas that were affected by flood," de Silva said. "In the recent past, some parts were also affected by drought. We have also been supporting our former cricketers and commentators who are in a financial crisis. There were some cricketers in the recent past who had cancer and we wanted to support them."

The event has been sanctioned by the ICC, and will be "telecast worldwide" via the Sony Network, de Silva said. However, few of the other details appear to have been worked out. SLC could not confirm the names of any players who would be involved, nor could they announce how much money they expected to raise. De Silva did say that Indian players would be involved, and that players would effectively be paid a "participating fee". The game is scheduled to be played at Khettarama.

Courtesy:ESPN