Sri Lanka's former Test cricketers will play a T-20 Bush fire charity match in Australia this month.
This was revealed by Asanka Gurusinha, the member of the 1996 World Cup winning Sri Lankan team, who will also lead the team in the match.
Speaking exclusively over telephone from Australia on Monday morning, Gurusinha, the ex-manager of the national team, who also served at the High Performance Centre at SLC, said, "the idea was mine. When the Tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004, cricket clubs in Victoria ( Melbourne) organised charity events to raise funds for our mother country. So we wanted to do a similar thing to support the Bushfire victims and play a Cricket match to raise funds for the victims".
The match will be played at the Donvale Sports Reserve, Donvale Sports Club, in Victoria.
"All funds will be handed over to St Vincent's hospital foundation".
Following former SL players will be participating.
Marlon Von Haught, Kaushall Silva, Sanath Kaluperuma, Chamara Dunusinghe, Sanjeewa Weerasinghe, Manjula Munasinghe, Saliya Ahangama, Dulip Samaraweera, Asanka Gurusinha, Athula Samarasekera, Prabath Nissanka, Malinga Bandara, Kaushal Weeraratne and Don Anurasiri.
The opposing team (Onvale Invitational XI) will be led by Brownlow Medalist Peter Bedford.
"David Cruse (Upali's Restaurent in Melbourne) is sponsoring the former Sri Lanka players team", Gurusinha added further.
The Cruse family is well known among the Knox City community and have been long-time sponsors of several sporting clubs in and around the area.
The family has maintained close ties with the Sri Lankan community of Melbourne and regularly hosted the Sri Lanka national cricket team at their pub.
