Coach cautious about WI players for fund-raiser

LONDON: Three West Indies players have been named on an International Cricket Council (ICC) Rest of the World team to face an Asian XI in a two-match fund-raiser series for tsunami victims, but West Indies coach Bennett King says their tour schedule could affect their participation in at least one of the matches. Many of the world’s top cricketers are listed for the two-match one-day series to be played in Australia and Asia to raise funds to support the victims of the tsunami disaster that has killed over 125,000 and devastated thousands of lives in a multitude of countries across the Indian Ocean.

The first of the matches between the ICC XI and an Asian XI is set for the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on January 10 and the second one-dayer will be played some time in February or March at a venue to be decided. West Indies captain Brian Lara, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo are the West Indies players named for the match, but with the Caribbean side facing Australia “A” in back-to-back practice matches on —  the days immediately before the fund-raiser —  January 8 and 9 in Hobart, coach King, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Australia, is hesitating to commit his players to the first match.

When asked about Lara specifically, King told the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph that: “At this stage we are unsure of the people who will be there. With only leaving 11 players (in Hobart), if we get an injury or whatever, we still have a commitment to play Australia ‘A’. That was our first commitment.” Former Australia Test captain Steve Waugh has been named manager and coach of the ICC team that has five Australians named in the 12-man squad. 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 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,” the ICC President added.

ICC team (from) —  Ricky Ponting (Australia), Matthew Hayden (Australia), Adam Gilchrist (Australia), Stephen Fleming (New Zealand), Brian Lara (West Indies), Chris Gayle (West Indies), Chris Cairns (New Zealand), Shane Warne (Australia), Glenn McGrath (Australia), Dwayne Bravo (West Indies), Darren Gough (England), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand)
Coach/manager: Steve Waugh (Australia). (CMC)