CANBERRA, Australia, CMC – The players and match officials participating in today’s limited overs tour match between the West Indies and the Australia Prime Minister’s XI will be wearing blue ribbons to support the people of Haiti.
The two teams will meet at the Manuka Oval in Canberra for the match (Wednesday night Caribbean time), a warm-up for the Windies as they prepare to face Australia in five One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals.
Speaking ahead of the match West Indies captain Chris Gayle said they were all “saddened” to see what happened to the people of Haiti.
“In the West Indies team we want to show our support by wearing the blue ribbons. As international cricketers we have a role as ambassadors and we are willing to do whatever we can to help with the efforts to get the Haitian people back on their feet again,” Gayle added.
On January 12 a catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the most populated area of the Caribbean country causing death and major damage to the infrastructure.
The International Red Cross announced that as many as three million people had been affected by the quake with the death toll nearing 200,000.
Big-hitting former Australia opener Matthew Hayden will lead the Prime Minister’s XI, which will also include Australia’s ICC Under-19 World Cup winning captain Mitchell Marsh.
Gayle conceded he knows little about the opposition but is prepared for tough opposition.
“The only person I might know is Matthew Hayden and Mitch Marsh might be playing so apart from those two guys … I don’t know what team we’re up against,” he said.
“It’s a first warm-up game and you have to take it very seriously. They can be very dangerous up against an international team,” Gayle added.
PRIME MINISTER’S XI – Matthew Hayden (captain), George Bailey, Tom Cooper, Tim Paine, Travis Birt, Mitchell Marsh, Jon Holland, Ben Oakley, James Pattinson, John Hastings, Peter George.
WEST INDIES (from) – Chris Gayle (captain), Lendl Simmons, Narsingh Deonarine, Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Dwayne Smith, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Darren Sammy, Denesh Ramdin, Nikita Miller, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Gavin Tonge.
