Bushfire Charity Game shifted from Sydney to Melbourne

 

The charity game to raise funds for the victims of the bushfires that engulfed the southern part of Australia is taking its base from Sydney to Melbourne because of the extreme weather conditions in Sydney. The weather department predicts that rain will lash down in almost all the parts of Sydney during the weekend which will make it hard to play the game, so the organizers decided to shift the venue.

Taking it to Twitter, Cricket Australia confirmed the news of shifting of venue and wrote that Melbourne’s Junction Oval will now host the highly-anticipated match on Sunday.

“Change of plans! To ensure the SCG is in the best possible condition for the BBL final, we’ve made the call to not go ahead with Saturday’s Bushfire Cricket Bash at the SCG,” CA tweeted.

The game was meant to be one of the three games that led to the Big Bash League Final on Saturday. But as soon as the warning of torrential rain came out, the governing body decided the game will not be possible in Sydney.

Legendary cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Courtney Walsh are all set to don the coaching hats for the upcoming charity game in Australia. Tendulkar will be training with the team led by former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting while Walsh will be coaching the side led by the iconic wicketkeeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist.

Shane Warne will not be able to take part in the game due to the shifting of the venue.

Other legends of the game to play the match include the likes of Brian Lara, Yuvraj Singh, Alex Blackwell, Wasim Akram, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Shane Watson, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin, and Brett Lee.

The day has been given a special name, “The Big Appeal,” so that more and more people come to join hands in providing relief to those who are affected. As far as rules are concerned, the match will be 10-overs-per-side-contest and there will no bowling restrictions, which means any bowler can bowl any amount of overs.

The fielders can go on and off by their will and fielding subs can come at any point in time. Meanwhile, the captain of both sides will have the power to change the subs while batting.

Here is the full squad for Bushfire Cricket Bash:

Ricky Ponting (c), Adam Gilchrist (c), Alex Blackwell, Andrew Symonds, Brad Fittler, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Brian Lara, Dan Christian, Nick Riewoldt, Elyse Villani, Grace Harris, Holly Ferling, Justin Langer, Luke Hodge, Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Phoebe Litchfield, Shane Watson, and Yuvraj Singh.