Brett Lee headlines ACA Masters team travelling to India

The Australian Cricketers’ Association will be taking its Masters team abroad for the first time, travelling to India in March to compete in the inaugural Road Safety World Series T20 competition.

Brett Lee and Brad Haddin headline the Australian Legends team boasting more than 800 international games of experience between them, and will form part of a tournament featuring three of the biggest names in cricket history – Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Muttiah Muralitharan.

Joining them, Lee and Haddin are, Ben Laughlin, Brad Hodge, Brett Geeves, Clint Mckay, Jason Krejza, Michael Klinger, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Reardon, Travis Birt, Xavier Doherty and Shane Lee, who will line up alongside his brother in national colours for the first time since 2001.

Rounding out the Australian squad will be an unfamiliar face (for Indian cricket fans at least), former Ruby League Star Pat Richards. One cross-code player will be joining each team with Olympic Gold Medallist and sprinter Johan Blake currently lining up for the West Indies.

The tournament comes less than a month after a host of cricketing of greats took to the field for Australia’s Bushfire Bash, which helped raise more than $7 million to assist fire affected communities.

Brett Lee, who featured in the Bushfire Bash alongside Haddin, Hodge, Tendulkar and Lara said he was once again eager to link up with his former teammates and greats of the game.

“It’s great to be able to do this with a number of superstars and guys I grew up admiring but was also lucky enough to play with or against. I think if you look to last month’s Bushfire Bash in Australia, it shows the power that cricket and sport has in bringing people together for a good cause,” he said.

“It’s also important that we can use this platform in a country that loves cricket to deliver a serious message about looking after each other on the road. We want to be able to make a difference and also change the way we think about travelling on the roads in India – in less than one hour in terms of numbers, a whole cricket team could lose their lives on the road.”

Indian road statistics make for grim reading. One person dies every four minutes on the road in India, adding to over 150,000 deaths a year.

Australia begins its tournament against Sri Lanka on 8 March, before taking on the West Indies, South Africa and India the following week.

SQUADS

Australia Legends: Brett Lee (C), Brad Haddin, Brad Hodge, Brett Geeves, Clint Mckay, Jason Krejza, Michael Klinger, Mark Cosgrove, Nathan Reardon, Shane Lee, Travis Birt, Xavier Doherty, Ben Laughlin, Pat Richards.

India Legends: Sachin Tendulkar (C), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Sanjay Bangar, Munaf Patel, Mohammad Kaif, Pragyan Ojha, Sairaj Bahutule, Sameer Dighe, Abey Kuruvilla.

Sri Lanka Legends: Tillakaratne Dilshan (C), Chamara Kapugedera, Chaminda Vaas, Farveez Maharoof, Marvan Atapattu, Muttiah Muralitharan, Rangana Herath, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Sachithra Senanayake, Thilan Thushara, Malinda Warnapura, Upul Chandana.

South Africa Legends: Jonty Rhodes (C), Andrew Hall, Garnett Kruger, Jacques Rudolph, Albie Morkel, Johann van der Wath, Lance Klusener, Martin Van Jaarsveld, Morne van Wyk, Paul Harris, Ryan McLaren, Roger Telemachus, Herschelle Gibbs.

West Indies Legends: Brian Lara (C), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Adam Sanford, Carl Hooper, Danza Hyatt, Daren Ganga, Pedro Collins, Ricardo Powell, Ridley Jacobs, Samuel Badree, Suleiman Benn, Tino Best, Dinanath Ramnarine.