More than $200,000 has been raised for Victorian bushfire victims at a charity cricket match filled with colour and laughs in Sydney.
The match began after about 7,000 people attended the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne for Sunday’s National Day of Mourning service while thousands more gathered around Australia to honour those who perished in the bushfires. A Big Bash match spokesman said hundreds of thousands of dollars was raised at the SCG event, but the exact figure would not be known for several days. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett followed in the footsteps of his test-playing great-grandfather, taking an impressive running catch in the dismissal of former Australian test cricket captain Mark Taylor. “At least I didn’t drop it,” Mr Garrett said after the match. While the catch made up for Garrett’s earlier slow, expensive bowling, boxer Anthony Mundine had the crowd of 20,330 in the palm of his hand as he headed back to the dressing room with one of the biggest scalps of the afternoon. The Mark Taylor XI was unable to reach the Steve Waugh XI’s winning total of 8/190.
Country singer Shannon Noll impressed early as he opened the bowling with former Australian paceman Glenn McGrath before batsman Michael Slater smashed the Idol star around the ground, hitting two sixes in one over.