Cricket hits new heights on Everest

A GROUP of Londoners are to play the world's highest game of cricket on a plateau on Mount Everest.

They will stage a full match of Twenty20 cricket 16,945 feet up in the Himalayas which will be beamed to Lord's. The party of 50 includes 22 players, eight reserves, medics and groundsmen as well as supporters who will prepare a cricket tea complete with cucumber sandwiches. The game will be played according to official rules to ensure it makes it into the Guinness Book of Records.

The teams are named Hillary and Tenzing after the first men to conquer the world's highest mountain in 1953. They have honorary captains in England skipper Andrew Strauss and his deputy Alastair Cook but the professionals will not be on the expedition, which leaves for Nepal on 9 April. The teams warmed up by converting Trafalgar Square into a cricket pitch with former England batsmen Mark Butcher and Chris Adams turning out.

They hope to raise £250,000 for the Lord's Taverners, which helps young people play sport, and the Himalayan Trust. After trekking to Everest base camp, they will set up a full-sized artificial pitch on the plateau of Gorak Shep and play - whatever the weather. The amateur players include City lawyers and bankers, travel agents, chefs and a Met policeman. Most of them have had to undergo a fitness regime to prepare for playing in conditions described as "like breathing through a straw".

Dr Buddha Basnyat, a doctor in Nepal who specialises in high altitude health, has warned they could be risking mountain sickness by playing at such a height. But organiser Richard Kirtley-Wright said: "We have strong medical support and we're not going all that way not to play. We're hoping for a lot of boundaries to avoid too many quick singles. It promises to be one of the most memorable matches ever seen at Lords." Footage of the trek and match will be shown via the website www.theeveresttest.com. Donations can be made through the website.