{"id":9647,"date":"2008-12-09T12:39:37","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T12:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tat.reddaisytrading.co.uk\/index.php\/2008\/12\/09\/england-make-mumbai-donation\/"},"modified":"2008-12-09T12:39:37","modified_gmt":"2008-12-09T12:39:37","slug":"england-make-mumbai-donation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/2008\/12\/09\/england-make-mumbai-donation\/","title":{"rendered":"England make Mumbai donation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Players donate half match fee to victims<\/h3>\n
\"\"ENGLAND\u2019S players have pledged to donate half their match fees from the opening Test against India to the victims of the terror attacks in Mumbai.<\/strong><\/div>\n

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Following a meeting at the team hotel in Chennai today, the players issued a joint statement pledging fees of around \u00a335,000 to help those affected by the attacks two weeks ago, which killed almost 200 people.<\/div>\n

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The statement, which was read by opening batsman Alastair Cook, said: \u201cThe England players will donate half their match fees from the first Test match to the families of those victims of the Mumbai attacks.\u201d<\/div>\n

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It also underlined England\u2019s reasons for returning to India following a week of soul-searching over whether to go back in the aftermath of the attacks.<\/div>\n

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Their return signified their \u201copen and public statement of support for the Indian people following the tragic events in Mumbai recently\u201d, according to the statement, where they also extended their sympathies to those affected by the attacks. <\/div>\n

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Cook added: \u201cWe have made a massive pact this morning at our meeting when we came up with the statement that this is it and nothing else can distract us from playing cricket.<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt was something that everyone wanted to get across because as a side we felt we wanted to do it.\u201d <\/div>\n

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But, as England began preparations for the start of the series at the Chepauk Stadium, Cook admitted the disrupted warm-up programme could bond the team together.<\/div>\n

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The Essex left-hander famously scored an unbeaten century on his Test debut at Nagpur two years ago, having arrived from the England A tour in West Indies following an injury to then captain Michael Vaughan.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Cook\u2019s success in similarly disrupted circumstances has given England hope they can defy expectations and compete against an India side who beat Australia only last month.<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat has happened recently has been taken out of our control but this side has got behind each other and made some tough decisions,\u201d he continued. <\/div>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re here as a unit now and we have to play some cricket. The preparation isn\u2019t ideal but I came here two years ago, flying half way around the world and had one training session and then played so it can be done – you don\u2019t just suddenly lose your technique overnight. <\/div>\n

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\u201cI remember turning up for my first Test match and jet lag doesn\u2019t really affect you when you\u2019ve got adrenaline kicking through your body. <\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u201cYou can use any excuse about the preparation but I turned up last time having travelled all the way around the world and luckily I performed well on that day.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt proves if you\u2019re mentally switched on you can achieve things and that\u2019s what we need to do as a side now.\u201d<\/div>\n

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As England practised at the stadium, the ever-present security was evident with the Rapid Action Force, a heavily-armed branch of the police department, guarding the outfield at all times.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

But when the steady rain that ruined India\u2019s session earlier in the day finally ceased, England were able to return to playing cricket again with Ian Bell and Andrew Strauss the first in the nets to begin England\u2019s Test preparations.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost we are cricketers and we just want to play cricket,\u201d said Cook. \u201cIt will be great to get back to something we know and something we know more about rather than talking about stuff we don\u2019t really know about.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAbu Dhabi was brilliant in terms of training but we still had that overlying thought of what the security report would say.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it has come back and said it is safe we\u2019re very excited about playing cricket and not worrying about other stuff we don\u2019t really know about.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Players donate half match fee to victims ENGLAND\u2019S players have pledged to donate half their match fees from the opening Test against India to the victims of the terror attacks in Mumbai. Following a meeting at the team hotel in Chennai today, the players issued a joint statement pledging fees of around \u00a335,000 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}