Sri Lanka XI to take on World XI to raise funds for disaster affected children

Sri Lanka XI will take on World XI in a T20 affair on 8th of September for a charity event to raise funds for the disaster-affected children following recent instances of both flooding and drought across different parts of the country. The likes of Tillakaratne Dilshan and Sanath Jayasuriya have confirmed their availability for the event. However, it is still not clear if Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardena would be available to represent Sri Lanka XI

The two stalwarts of Sri Lankan, Sangakkara and Jayawardena cited out prior commitments to various ties as the reason for their unavailability. The chances of Sangakkara’s county team Surrey releasing him for the event is highly unlikely. Jayawardena, however, stated that he would try within best of his abilities to chalk out his schedule and represent Sri Lanka XI. Cricketers from as many as seven nations, including India, have agreed to represent World XI.

Question marks on availability of Sanga and Mahela

We are not in a position to reveal the names of the players at the moment. The idea of staging this match was first broached at the chief executives’ meeting of the ICC where our president, Thilanga Sumathipala, expressed the desire to raise funds to help those affected by the tragedies. All member boards of the ICC pledged their full support; we are expecting players from up to seven countries to make up the World XI, including from India,” claimed Ashley de Silva, the CEO of SLC, according to Wisden India.

“We are still in the process of procuring names from the other countries from which the final 13 will be picked. From our point of view, unfortunately, Kumar Sangakkara won’t be available for the Sri Lanka XI because he has county commitments and he is not sure if he will be released by his county. We have also spoken to Mahela (Jayawardene) and while he too has a prior commitment, he has said he will try his best to work around that, if possible, to be available for the match,” further added De Silva.