LONDON, England, Mon. Jan. 3, 2005: West Indies cricket captain, Brian Charles Lara, along with teammates Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo are among an international ‘Rest of the World’ cricket squad slated to face an Asian XI in a two-match fund-raiser series for Tsunami victims on the Asian continent. The January 10 World Cricket Tsunami Appeal fund-raising games are being organized primarily by the International Cricket Council and will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The return leg will be played in a venue to be selected by the Asian Cricket Council on a date to be fixed in February or March. ICC CEO Malcolm Speed said he hoped the Melbourne publics' reputation as Australia's most passionate sports lovers would result in a financial outcome that help make a tangible difference to the tsunami affected regions. The other players who will represent the ICC are Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist of Australia, Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and Chris Cairns of New Zealand and Darren Gough of England. The money raised from the Australian fund raising efforts will go to assist the global relief and development organization, World Vision which is dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide, according to an ICC statement. The affected areas include Sri Lanka and India, which are ICC Full Members; Malaysia which has been an ICC Associate Member since 1967; and Thailand, the Maldives and Indonesia which are all ICC Affiliate Members. Up to press time last night, the death toll from the Tsunamis rose to 155,000. Reprinted from hardbeatnews.com