Harbhajan Singh named Ambassador for Champions Trophy along with 7 other former cricketers

With 50 days to go for the ICC Champions Trophy to commence in England and Wales, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has named 8 former cricketers as the Champion ambassadors of the tournament. The list contains some high profile names with India’s Harbhajan Singh being the representative from India. Other 7 members are former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, Shane Bond, Habibul Bashar, Ian Bell, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith. The tournament will be played from the 1st of June to 18th June.

All the 8 ambassadors will be part of the Nissan trophy tour and will be travelling to United Kingdom as a part of a programme aimed to provide an opportunity to school children to meet and play with any one of these 8 legends. They will also be part of the ICC editorial team which will provide match insights via exclusive columns written by this reputed cricketers. It will be available at icc-cricket.com.

Harbhajan has been a part of the Champions Trophy winning squad once before when India jointly won the tournament with Sri Lanka way back in 2002 under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly. “To be appointed as an Ambassador for a global event in which India will be the defending champion is one of the highs for me as a cricketer and something to be really proud of.”

“I look forward to playing my role to promote and publicise this thrilling and exciting ICC event, and will also closely follow India’s performance. I am confident that team IIndiandia will achieve greater heights and am sure that millions of fans back home will be following the side’s fortunes,” Harbhajan was quoted as saying by ICC.

ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson was excited to name these 8 cricketers as the Champion Ambassadors with the hope of leaving a lasting impact on the sport. “With 50 days to go to the Champions Trophy, we are delighted to announce these eight outstanding cricketers as our Champion Ambassadors. The programme will connect these greats of the game with a new generation of fans and players through our Cricket for Good project and leave a real lasting legacy for the sport.

“The team will also bring great insight and expertise to fans via the ICC website and I’m sure we will all enjoy reading their analysis and opinions on 15 games during the Champions Trophy,” he concluded.