Sri Lanka Cricket announced yesterday that they have plans to play a T20 match between a World XI and a Sri Lanka XI comprising present and past cricketers at the R Premadasa Stadium on September 8 to raise funds for its Cricket Aid program.
“This event has been organised in order to support the disaster affected children. It is the brainchild of SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala who initiated it about two months ago,” said Sri Lanka Cricket CEO Ashley de Silva at a press conference held at the Pallekele International Stadium yesterday to launch the event.
“The process started prior to the CEOs Board meeting of the ICC where we briefed the member countries of the event in order to procure support from them. It was very encouraging to note that all the CEOs agreed to support this noble cause,” he said.
“Subsequently after this event was sanctioned by the ICC we wrote to all the member countries and we asked them whether their players could be released to support this cause.
“We have received names of players both past and present from 6-7 countries including India but we cannot release the names until we have picked the 13 players from both sides. The names will be released during the course of the week,” De Silva said.
Among the local stars that are likely to play are Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya.
“We wrote to Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene as well. Kumar has indicated that he is unavailable because of his county commitments. Mahela has a prior commitment which he has already confirmed but he has also given us an indication that he might try to adjust and participate but so far we have not got a confirmation,” said de Silva.
De Silva also revealed that each of the players participating in the charity match would be paid although he didn’t reveal the figures.
“As national cricketers they are an asset to any country and they have commitments. We have to pay them for participating according to their levels.”
“Cricket Aid is our charity organisation and all the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects have been carried through the Cricket Aid which was established in 2004 and subsequently was revamped after the newly elected committee took over 1½ years ago,” said De Silva.
“All the funds which would be raised from this event will be channelled through Cricket Aid in order to support not only the disaster affected children but other areas affected by floods and droughts in the recent past. We have also been supporting a lot of our former cricketers and commentators who are in a financially crisis. This is a CSR project which we intend taking forward,” he said.
De Silva said that SLC were working on a budget of around Rs. 35-40 million to host the match which will be telecast live worldwide by Sony.
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