The Ashes 2009Following in the footsteps of former teammates Steve Waugh and Glenn McGrath, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has volunteered for charity and will be batting for cancer-stricken children during the Ashes campaign against England.
As part of "Run Ricky Run", a new anti-cancer initiative by the Ponting Foundation in collaboration with Fox Sports, cricket lovers can sponsor every run scored by the Australian captain in the five-Test series against England and the money would go to charities fighting childhood cancer.
"One purpose is to obviously raise much-needed funds for childhood cancer, but I think it has another effect," Ponting was quoted as saying by 'Herald Sun'.
"It will keep a lot of people interested in the cricket while we are away - it's another way for kids in particular to stay in touch and in tune with what the team is doing and how many runs I am scoring," he added.
Ponting and his wife Rianna have been taking a lot of interest in the issue and the Australian captain said this is one of the many initiatives he has in his mind.
"The work Rianna and I have done for children's cancer and trying to find a cure for childhood cancer has been pretty well known around Australia.
"This is one of the new initiatives that we have come up with," Ponting added.
Ponting's former captain Steve Waugh supports Udayan, a house for children of lepers in a Kolkata suburb, while McGrath has been championing breast cancer awareness for quite a while.
Retired Aussie stumper Adam Gilchrist too have donated generously for physically-challenged kids, For every six he hit in the Indian Premier League II, a physically-challenged kid got a modified bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment