Indian cine stars, UK celebs to play charity match on Mar 16

Mumbai, Mar 10 (UNI) The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) today announced the Idea-IIFA Cup, a charity cricket match in partnership with Star Plus and Idea Cellular between a team comprising Indian cine stars and the Sports Relief team comprising well known celebrities from UK on March 16 at the Brabourne stadium here.

The match, a 20-20 format tie, will be held for the benefit of the behind the scenes workers of the Indian film industry.

Addressing a press conference here, Sabbas Joseph, Director, Wizcraft International Entertainment, said, ''This is the first public event of IIFA in India and it will kick off the 2006 IIFA awards. The day will also combine cricket, concerts and fashion for wholesome entertainment for the benefit of behind the scenes workers who otherwise go unnoticed.'' He further informed that cine stars like Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Suniel Shetty, Arbaaz Khan, Rahul Dev, Upen Patel, Aamir Khan, Emraan Hashmi, Asmit Patel, Chunky Pandey, Austosh Gowariker, Madhawan, Venkatesh and Ritiesh Deshmukh among others will represent the Indian cine stars team, while the Sports Relief team, an British organisation engaged in relief work for the downtrodden will consist of former Test players Phil Tuffnell and Jack Russel along with pop star Peter Andre and commentators and staff of BBC.

The IIFA XI will also see India's fastest man Narain Karthikeyan take part in the match.

Speaking on the occasion, British Deputy High Commissioner Vicki Treadell said that she was very happy that the two orgainsations have come together for such a worthy cause. She also wished the Indian and England cricket teams which will face off eachother in the third Test beginning at the Wankhede stadium here from March 18 best of luck, while wishing the English team a bit more luck than the Indians.

''When England loses to India in cricket, our whole nation feels down, but I must add that when India loses a lot more people feel sad in respect to the Indian fans.'' Idea Cellular will also run a 'All India Star XI ke Saath Khelo' contest for its prepaid and post paid customers starting today.

Customers can participate in the contest by dialing 456084 and download dailer tones, ring tones, etc of Aamir Khan's songs. The lucky winner will get a chance to play in IIFA XI team on March 16.

To top this, one lucky winner from each Idea circle will get a lifetime opportunity to witness the match from a special Idea Zone at the stadium.

The event will be shown simultaneously on Star Plus, Star One and Star Utsav on April nine, it was announced on the occasion.

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