City Warriors take on Cairns men

MANGALORE: One may have seen his explosive batting and incisive bowling many times over in the international arena. But come Friday, cricket lovers in this coastal city will see Chris Cairns, the former Black Caps in flesh and blood lead his motley crew of Coastal Digest Chris Cairns XI in a T20 fixture at NMPT ground at Panambur near here versus Dix Group DKCA Mangalore Warriors __ a group of upcoming cricketers from Mangalore.
The two teams would vie for the Maruti Suzuki Chris Cairns T20 Cricket Cup. The Chris Cairns XI consists of club and county players from England, Australia and New Zealand, all of whom have come on board to support the charitable cause of the Chris Cairns Foundation and its charity in India. Daniel Sequeira will captain the DKCA Mangalore Warriors and consists of players who have represented Mangalore zone and Karnataka in tournaments.
If the excitement of watching a T20 match with all the attendant razzmatazz is not enough, young upcoming cricketers will meet Cairns up close and personal where the cricketer would share his life experiences with Generation Next and offer them valuable cricketing tips and techniques. This coaching clinic would be held at the venue prior to the start of the T20 match, said Joseph Rego, head, Chris Cairns Foundation. Rego hails from Mangalore.
The Foundation has associated itself with Mangalore Coastal Round Table, a voluntary organisation. Round Table, its president Arjun Pinto said would be supporting the Foundation by donating the amount for operation and maintenance cost for the recipient of a hearing implant arranged by the Foundation. Round Table would also host the Chris Cairns Charity Ball the same evening at Boat Club, Sulthan Bathery to raise funds for the Foundation.
Srikanth Rai, president, DKCA, who unveiled the Cup on this occasion felt that the presence of international cricketers such as Cairns would give a big boost to the game as well as redouble efforts on part of cricket administrators to perk up cricket infrastructure here. The T20 match on Friday would also be a big opportunity for the Daniel Sequeira led team to test their skills against some professional cricketers from the northern and southern hemisphere.