The United States’s professional gridiron league teams have joined Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and other sports figures around the world in assisting the disaster relief mission for the tsunami-earthquake catastrophe with a death toll that is expected to reach 150 000.
The National Football League’s Baltimore Ravens collected $51 475 from fans at their game against the visiting Miami Dolphins on Sunday, with the team adding another $25 000. About 60 volunteers carried white contribution buckets at stadium entrances, and the Red Cross said the money will be used for food, clothing, shelter, hygiene kits and mental health counselling.
”There were so many lives lost, so many homes,” said fan Mike Gifford, who made a donation at the stadium. ”It’s one of the worst disasters ever, and we should help.”
Volunteers also accepted donations at Sunday’s game in Seattle between the Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons. The New York Giants, through the humanitarian aid group AmeriCares, planned to collect money before their game on Sunday night against Dallas. The team partnered with that organisation after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks.
The fund-raising effort came a day after it was announced that a one-day cricket match featuring players such as Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting and Brian Lara will be staged on January 10 in Melbourne, Australia, to raise money for relief efforts.
In Chiang Mai, Thailand, Wimbledon champion Sharapova beat four-time major winner Williams in an exhibition match that began with a 30-second tribute to victims of the deadly waves. Nearly 5 000 are confirmed dead in Thailand.
After the match, held hundreds of kilometres from the country’s battered beaches, the players auctioned their rackets for about $2 500 each.
The Chennai Open in India, among the ATP Tour season openers, will proceed despite several thousand dead along the coastline.
Organisers believe cancelling the event will hurt morale in the area. The ATP, the governing body of men’s tennis, is contributing the $25 000 tournament fee to the United Nations Children’s Fund’s emergency relief fund.
”This is the fourth time I’m going to play here in Madras, but believe me, it wasn’t easy to come here this time,” said 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya. ”A lot of feelings and emotions came into perspective.”
Several hundred people on the Madras coast were among more than 9 000 people killed in India. Three players — Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman, Germany’s Rainer Schuettler and India’s Mahesh Bhupathi — have pledged prize money from the Chennai Open, where the champion collects $52 000.
”We felt that we should do our bit for the victims in our own small way,” Bjorkman said. ”The horrific tragedy is impossible to fully comprehend or put into words.”
In other sports events aimed at disaster relief:
Sri Lanka’s national cricket team cut short a New Zealand tour and visited refugees on Sunday. The team went to welfare centres and hospitals. About 28 500 people died in Sri Lanka.
Germany’s four-man luge team donated the $2 150 in prize money for their victory in a World Cup event on Saturday in Oberhof, Germany.
— Sapa-AP
Associated Press writers David Ginsburg in Baltimore and Sandeep Nakai in Madras, India, contributed to this report