Playing for a reason

Major events have usually been necessary for staging World XI matches in Australia. The first contests came as a replacement for South Africa's 1971-72 tour, which was cancelled because of Apartheid; Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket arrived with another shock in the late seventies. No reason has been bigger than the Boxing-Day tsunami that caused more than 150,000 deaths throughout Asia.

Picking World XIs is an age-old pursuit, but it is extremely rare for a side chosen by anyone - these two were selected by Steve Waugh and Sir Richard Hadlee - to make the field. A force majeure led to the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal at the MCG tomorrow and the line-ups are a best-of-the-best cricket tribute to the victims. Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne returning from long one-day absences; Ricky Ponting and Stephen Fleming talking the same team's tactics; Sanath Jayasuriya, Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag jostling for positions while being careful not to bump Sachin Tendulkar's elbow; Waugh as coach. The MCG is the perfect ground to try and fit them all in.

The last time Melbourne hosted a world game was in 1996 to celebrate the Victorian Cricket Association's centenary. Dean Jones, one of the state's finest, was a local export to the international side and Ricky Ponting was Australia's 12th man. Jones had been dumped from the national squad two years earlier and scored 103 against his old team-mates, but Mark Taylor and Mark Waugh's half-centuries pushed Australia to victory with an over to spare in front of 35,561 spectators. A full-house is expected tomorrow for the match with full one-day international status.

A Rest of the World side was introduced in England in 1970 when a team boasting Clive Lloyd, Garry Sobers, Barry Richards and Mike Procter played five matches, and Australia hosted a full tour in 1971-72 after the Australian Board of Control ended the Springboks' tour because of political pressure. "In the end, and after early vicissitudes, the tour was rated a considerable success," Wisden reported.

The highlight of the 12 first-class matches was Sobers's 254 in a five-day match at the MCG, an innings Don Bradman rated one of the best played in Australia. Facing a first-innings deficit of 101 runs, Sobers turned the result with 35 fours and two sixes as the World XI won by 96. While the long game was a classic, the corresponding one-day contest at the MCG was a flop, the visiting combination falling for 75 as Doug Walters collected four wickets and Australia won in a stroll.

Packer's circus performed against World XIs over two seasons from 1977-79 on mostly foreign fields with West Indies winning both of the limited overs International Cups. The World Series cricketers rated the matches and Supertests as the hardest of their careers.

A Rest of the World compilation played MCC at Lord's in 1987 for a bicentennial celebration, with Sunil Gavaskar and Gordon Greenidge responding to the first-innings centuries of Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting, and 13 years later at Dhaka Michael Bevan provided another miraculous - yet largely unnoticed - innings of 185 not out as the internationals, chasing the Asia XI's 320, finished one run short.

"World" sides have often been used in testimonial and festival games, but with the cluttering of the international calendar opportunities for serious uniting of nations have been saved for the most special of occasions. "The people who saw Sobers [during his 254] have enjoyed one of the most historic events of cricket, they were privileged to have such an experience," Bradman said. Tomorrow spectators will leave the MCG after a comparable one-day occasion.