Warne commits to rebuild tsunami-hit cricket ground

SYDNEY: Test cricket’s leading wicket-taker Shane Warne has committed his charitable foundation to donate 20,000 dollars (15,600 USD) to tsunami reconstruction efforts in Sri Lanka, reports said on Thursday.
The move, announced at a breakfast event in Melbourne on December 26, followed reports that the foundation had failed to deliver a promised 50,000 dollars (39,000 USD) for repair of the devastated cricket ground in the Sri Lankan town of Galle.
Galle is where Warne took his 500th Test wicket in March 2004.
The Sydney Morning Herald said Warne told the celebrity breakfast — attended by Australia’s richest man James Packer and Warne’s fellow retiring cricketer Glenn McGrath — that a promotion at last year’s Boxing Day Test for the sale of wristbands had failed to attract much support.
Only 5,000 of the three-dollar wristbands had been sold, he reportedly said.
That information was conveyed to Galle International Cricket Club this year but more than five months after the foundation had promised in an email that the fund-raiser would net 50,000 dollars for the reconstruction of the ground, the newspaper said.
The foundation’s then chief executive Brad Grapsas told the director of the Galle club, Jayananda Warnaweera, that the cost of the promotion was greater than the amount collected and there would be no money forthcoming.
Warne told this week’s breakfast he had been greatly moved by a visit he made to Galle a month after the 2004 tsunami devastated the coastal town and swamped its picturesque cricket ground.
He handed out food, cricket kit and toys to children orphaned in the tsunami, which killed an estimated 31,000 people in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Cricket told AFP this week that work had got underway at the ground and there were plans to hold a Test match during the England tour planned for late October-November 2007.
“I can say we’re giving the Sri Lankan Cricket Club 20,000 dollars today, which goes towards helping build some cricket grounds,” Warne told the function, according to the Herald.
Meanwhile, Galle cricket official Warnaweera welcomed Warne’s offer.
“It is nice on Shane’s part to offer the money and it is for a very worthy cause,” Warnaweera, also a former Sri Lankan Test spinner, told AFP. “On behalf of the whole of southern Sri Lanka’s cricket fans, I wish to express my thanks to him. We will have a totally new Galle Stadium when the work is completed and Shane could be proud of his contribution,” he added.

Shane Watson aims for World Cup return

SYDNEY: Shane Watson has his sights set on being fully fit for the World Cup after re-injuring his left hamstring on the weekend.
Watson was originally named in Australia’s team for the first Ashes Test at Brisbane but hurt his leg while bowling for Queensland in November.
In his return to bowling in a Pura Cup game on Saturday, Watson managed three overs before again injuring the same hamstring, though in a slightly different place. He will fly to Melbourne to consult the Australia team doctor Trefor James on Wednesday.
Watson, who batted with a runner on Sunday and made a courageous 68 for the Bulls, said he would not consider becoming a specialist batsman to allow his muscle to fully recover.
“Giving up bowling is not an option,” Watson told AAP. “I love batting and bowling. I’ll be right for the World Cup. I just have to make sure I do everything I possibly can to make sure I’m there. I can’t let the hamstring put me out of the World Cup as well as the Ashes,” he added.
Watson said his injury should not be an ongoing problem. “There’s a strain there and we think it’s another tear,” he said. “It’s not a chronic thing. But when you’re a bowler giving 100 per cent, every time you charge in, if there’s a slight weakness there, it does go as a bowler,” he added.
Watson, who would likely have batted at No. 6 in the Perth test had he remained fit this summer, said he had spoken to the man who filled that role, Andrew Symonds, after the Ashes win.
“(He) actually gave me a call last night, which was really nice of him, to say he was thinking of me and that all the boys were having a couple of beers for me,” Watson said.
“They knew I was feeling happy for them but probably feeling disappointed, and they wanted me to know I was in their thoughts - which was really lovely of them. I was really happy for all the guys because all that mattered was Australia winning back the Ashes. I would have loved to have been a part of it but it wasn’t my time, I suppose.”