A host of past and present West Indies players, including Richie Richardson, Curtly Ambrose, Ridley Jacobs, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Dinanath Ramnarine and Sulieman Benn, are scheduled to arrive today to join their Jamaican counterparts ahead of Sunday's playing of the second annual Christopher Gayle, CJ Sports Pro 15/15 Cricket Extravaganza for charity.
The event, which will be held at St Ann Bauxite Sports Club, will see the regional stars joining up with local champions Courtney Walsh, Jerome Taylor, Xavier Marshall, Wavell Hinds, Carlton Baugh, Howard Harris and Gayle for the one-day show piece, which will feature three knockout 15 over-per-side matches.
Others down to participate in the spectacle, which is slated to get under way at 9 a.m., include Winston Benjamin, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore, new West Indies Under-19 recruits Akeem Dewar and John Campbell, and Olympic and world double sprint champion, Usain Bolt.
Assistance
"So far, it's going great. We kind of fell short on expected sponsorship, but at the last minute Club Jamaica came to our assistance and we are ready and raring to go," said Whilie Jervis, managing director of CJ Sports, which will donate sports gear, equipment and computers to needy schools throughout the parishes of St Ann and Kingston and St Andrew.
"We must thank Digicel, the West Indies Players' Association, Pegasus and Avis Car Rental for their support of the venture thus far, and we hope that the turnout will be good, as the more people that turn out is the more we will be able to donate to other schools outside those we have identified thus far," he added.
The extravaganza, which was held for the first time at Uprising Sports Club in St Elizabeth last year, will see players being spread across four teams, which will adopt the parishes of St Ann, St Elizabeth, Trelawny and Kingston and St Andrew.
The players, upon arrival today, will participate in a pre-tournament charity football match against a Clive 'Busy' Campbell Invitational XI at Barbican beach playing field at 6:30 p.m.