It is over five months since the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated swathes of south-east Asia, but memories are still raw.
As the cream of the world's cricket talent gathered at Lord's ahead of today's fund-raising match, the India leg-spinner Anil Kumble revealed how he and his family only narrowly escaped after leaving their Chennai holiday home minutes before the wave struck the city on the south-east coast of India on Boxing Day.
"About 10 minutes before the tsunami hit, I checked out," said Kumble, who is one of nine representatives here from India and Sri Lanka, the two Test-playing nations most affected by the disaster.
"I was at the reception, totally ignorant about what had happened. Our cottage was about 60 metres from the beach and it did get affected, so I consider myself very lucky. It wasn't until we got home and turned on our TV that we realised the full extent of what had happened."
More than 20,000 tickets have been sold in advance for a match that brings together 22 big-name cricketers from eight countries. Between them, the MCC side, captained by New Zealand's Stephen Fleming, and an International XI, led by Brian Lara, have won 5,663 Test and one-day international caps, scored 177,140 runs and taken 5,448 wickets.
The only notable absentees from cricket's A-list are Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar, who are both injured, and - with the exception of Shane Warne - representatives from England and Australia, who were in Southampton yesterday for their Twenty20 match.
It is the second time cricket's great and good have gathered to help the tsunami appeal following a game in Melbourne in January which raised £5.7m. Proceeds from this match will be shared between five charities, including the British Red Cross and the Foundation of Goodness, which has been working in southern Sri Lanka for six years and is supported by Muralitharan and Warne.
"It means a lot to be involved," said Sri Lanka's batsman-wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara. "We were in New Zealand when the tsunami struck. The guys switched their phones on after a match, and a couple of texts came through saying there had been a bit of flooding in Colombo.
"But switching on to CNN and BBC that night really drove home what had happened. It became more devastating every day as the death toll mounted. All Sri Lankans are in it collectively, and it's special to be able to help like this."
MCC: SP Fleming (NZ, capt), CH Gayle (WI), SC Ganguly (Ind), VVS Laxman (Ind), JH Kallis (SA), A Flower (Zim), KC Sangakkara (SL, wkt), SM Pollock (SA), A Kumble (Ind), Harbhajan Singh (Ind), Shoaib Akhtar (Pak).
International XI: BC Lara (WI, capt), V Sehwag (Ind), ST Jayasuriya (SL), GC Smith (SA), RS Dravid (Ind), S Chanderpaul (WI), CL Cairns (NZ) SK Warne (Aus), WPUJC Vaas (SL), Mohammad Sami (Pak), M Ntini (SA).
TV: Sky Sports 1, 10.30am
Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake
Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 ...
As the cream of the world's cricket talent gathered at Lord's ahead of today's fund-raising match, the India leg-spinner Anil Kumble revealed how he and his family only narrowly escaped after leaving their Chennai holiday home minutes before the wave struck the city on the south-east coast of India on Boxing Day.
"About 10 minutes before the tsunami hit, I checked out," said Kumble, who is one of nine representatives here from India and Sri Lanka, the two Test-playing nations most affected by the disaster.
"I was at the reception, totally ignorant about what had happened. Our cottage was about 60 metres from the beach and it did get affected, so I consider myself very lucky. It wasn't until we got home and turned on our TV that we realised the full extent of what had happened."
More than 20,000 tickets have been sold in advance for a match that brings together 22 big-name cricketers from eight countries. Between them, the MCC side, captained by New Zealand's Stephen Fleming, and an International XI, led by Brian Lara, have won 5,663 Test and one-day international caps, scored 177,140 runs and taken 5,448 wickets.
The only notable absentees from cricket's A-list are Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar, who are both injured, and - with the exception of Shane Warne - representatives from England and Australia, who were in Southampton yesterday for their Twenty20 match.
It is the second time cricket's great and good have gathered to help the tsunami appeal following a game in Melbourne in January which raised £5.7m. Proceeds from this match will be shared between five charities, including the British Red Cross and the Foundation of Goodness, which has been working in southern Sri Lanka for six years and is supported by Muralitharan and Warne.
"It means a lot to be involved," said Sri Lanka's batsman-wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara. "We were in New Zealand when the tsunami struck. The guys switched their phones on after a match, and a couple of texts came through saying there had been a bit of flooding in Colombo.
"But switching on to CNN and BBC that night really drove home what had happened. It became more devastating every day as the death toll mounted. All Sri Lankans are in it collectively, and it's special to be able to help like this."
MCC: SP Fleming (NZ, capt), CH Gayle (WI), SC Ganguly (Ind), VVS Laxman (Ind), JH Kallis (SA), A Flower (Zim), KC Sangakkara (SL, wkt), SM Pollock (SA), A Kumble (Ind), Harbhajan Singh (Ind), Shoaib Akhtar (Pak).
International XI: BC Lara (WI, capt), V Sehwag (Ind), ST Jayasuriya (SL), GC Smith (SA), RS Dravid (Ind), S Chanderpaul (WI), CL Cairns (NZ) SK Warne (Aus), WPUJC Vaas (SL), Mohammad Sami (Pak), M Ntini (SA).
TV: Sky Sports 1, 10.30am
Tsunami swamps Japan after powerful quake
Large areas of Japan's northern Pacific coast have been swamped by a devastating tsunami, engulfing entire towns following a major 8.9 ...
