5 Lesser known fundraising matches involving Indian teams and players

The BCCI is known to have organized numerous benefit matches during the previous century for financially helping the cricketers who represented India. The star Indian players always stepped up for a cause and were part of many other matches where the motto was to raise funds for natural calamities. The Indian players did give a thought or two to help the neighbourhood nations by playing matches. On some occasions, their helping hand even went across to other continents as well.

Here we look at five lesser-known instances of the Indian players taking part in charity matches:

5. United Way Charity Match – World XI vs West Indies in 1990:

West Indies faced off World XI team in 1990 at the Toronto Skydome part of raising funds for Canada’s non-profitable organization, the United Way. The World XI had a majority of Indian players namely Mohammad Azharuddin, Kapil Dev, Sachin Tendulkar, Maninder Singh and Manoj Prabhakar.

The World XI team, who batted first, posted 309/6 in their 50 overs. The highlight of the innings was a 116-run partnership between young Tendulkar (54) and all-rounder Imran Khan (62) for the 5th wicket. Carlisle Best (96) and Richie Richardson (78) dominated the chase with a 171-run partnership for the 2nd wicket. West Indies went on to chase down the target with four balls and four wickets to spare.

Carlisle and Tendulkar were jointly awarded the player of the match. The first edition of United Way Charity match was held in 1989 which did not include any Indians but collected 550,000 USD through it. Dilip Vengsarkar took part of the United Way Charity match held in 1991.