DUBAI – To help rebuild the stadia on Caribbean Islands, West Indies teamwill play an exhibition T20I match against ICC World XI at Cricket’s iconicLord’s ground on May 31. Talking about the event, England’s stand-indirector and coach of World XI, Andy Flower said that the events like theseare more about generating goodwill than just raising the money.
“I’ve been involved in these World XI charity events before as a player,and there’s usually a wonderful feel to it. The feeling is generatedbecause the intent behind everyone’s involvement is for good and you getsome really amazing side benefits as well. For instance, here we’ve gotPakistanis and Indians sharing a dressing room which doesn’t happen veryoften,” Flower told ICC-Cricket.comlink>.
Eight months ago Hurricane Irma and Maria affected the islands in the worseway possible. It also destroyed cricket stadia in the process. ThereforeWest Indies Cricket Board, Giles Clarke, ICC and MCC decided to cometogether to raise the money to restore the grounds.
Assuring fans that the one-off event will be a spectacular watch, Floweradded, “This is a wonderful experience and will create wonderful memoriesfor these players and hopefully wonderful memories for the spectators whosee really talented exciting players playing against a very talentedexciting West Indies side.”
After skipper Eoin Morgan pulled out of the fundraiser due to fracturedfinger,link>Pakistan’sShahid Afridi will now lead the World XI squad that includes Sam Billings,Sam Curran, Tamim Iqbal, Dinesh Karthik, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Lamichhane,Shoaib Malik, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tymal Mills, Thisara Perera, AdilRashid, Luke Ronchi (wkt), and Mohammed Shami.
West Indies team is led by Carlos Brathwaite and it includes Samuel Badree,Rayad Emrit, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse, KeemoPaul, Rovman Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wkt), Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels,and Kesrick Williams.