SL players and board to help drought victims

Sri Lanka's cricketers and the cricket board have joined an island-wide relief campaign to help drought victims in the rain-starved north-eastern provinces of the country. The failure of the last monsoon and the ensuing drought has left 20,000 families in desperate need of drinking water and essential foods.

The Sri Lankan team, which has also been heavily involved in the raising of funds for the construction of a cancer hospital on the outskirts of Colombo, traveled north to Madirigiriya, one of the most seriously affected areas, with a large lorryload of rice, lentils, milk powder and sugar on Thursday. The food was distributed to 500 families.

The board followed their lead and, on Friday, announced that all revenue generated from the sale of tickets from the fourth one-dayer in Dambulla would be donated to the relief campaign. The board urged the public to join the campaign as the drought victims battle for survival until the next rains, expected in mid-September.