5 Lesser known fundraising matches involving Indian teams and players

3. Flood Relief Match – India vs SM Gavaskar’s Invitation XI in 1988:

Bangladesh hosted the Wills Asia Cup in 1988 which began in the latter half of October. India won the title by defeating Sri Lanka in the final. The tournament was played only a month after the country was drenched in floods. These floods caused damage in Bangladesh between July and September where 52% of the total area turned out to be flooded area. More than 2300 people were reported as dead due to those floods.

To help the victims of the floods, a team led by Sunil Gavaskar faced the Asian champions India in Dhaka, a day after the tournament final. The team named SM Gavaskar’s Invitation XI was led by Gavaskar himself, a year after his last appearance in International cricket for India. 12 players per team were allowed to take part in this match. India fielded with 8 players from the final-winning side while the Gavaskar’s XI had the likes of Zaheer Abbas, Duleep Mendis, Arun Lal and few more players from the four Asian teams.

Kapil Dev opened the batting for India alongside Kris Srikkanth. They shared 110 runs for the first wicket out of which Kapil scored 82 runs. He struck 14 fours and two maximums as India ended up with 246/9 in the restricted 40 overs. Zaheer Abbas top-scored for the SM Gavaskar’s XI with 56 runs but they finished with only 241/9 and lost the match by mere 5 runs. The funds raised through this match for the flood victims was nearly 70,000 USD.