Three Indians were included in the World XI for the charity match against Sri Lanka which was originally scheduled to take place on September 8 but was later postponed as reported by Wisden India. The Sri Lanka Cricket’s technical committee decided to give the players a break from their tight schedule.

Non-availability of their star players was also one of the reasons to defer the announced date. The CEO of the Sri Lanka cricket Ashley De Silva said, “A couple of key players like Mahela Jayawardena and Kumar Sangakkara are also not available on this date, so we felt that we could afford to wait a while and play this game at a more conducive time.”

The name of all the players set to take part in the World XI has not been announced yet, however, few of the players have confirmed their participation. “I must extend my sincere thanks to the players who confirmed their participation – Robin Uthappa, Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan (India), Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq (Pakistan), Tymal Mills (England), Graeme Cremer (Zimbabwe), Luke Ronchi (New Zealand), JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien (South Africa) amongst others, as well the respective Boards for the support extended,” said Silva.

Raina, Pathan and Uthappa’s inclusion to the squad was much highlighted as no Indian’s were included in the World XI team touring Pakistan in September.

Recently, the island was struck by a southwest monsoon resulting in floods affecting close to 700,000 people. The receivables from stadium tickets will be used to help the flood affected people with special focus given to children and old-aged people.

“We have by no means abandoned this plan, and we will definitely be playing this match at the earliest possible date,” De Silva signed off.