Asian cricket officials have selected Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly and Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan to lead a 14-member team from four South Asian Test nations to meet a world side next week at the Melbourne charity match for tsunami victims.

Dubbed "Cricket Aid," all proceeds from the January 10 match - including ticket money, sponsorships and television rights - will be donated to US-based relief organisation World Vision to help thousands of tsunami survivors.

"Many of the worst-affected countries are members of the ACC and we are doing this to show solidarity and help the victims," Syed Ashraful Huq, the Asian Cricket Council's chief executive officer, told a news conference.

"There is much to play for, and we anticipate a very competitive match."

The team will include five players from India and five from Sri Lanka - two of the countries hardest hit by the December 26 tsunamis. Three cricketers from Pakistan and one from Bangladesh will also play. Pakistan's coach Bob Woolmer will direct the squad.

"The team is truly worthy of representing Asia against the World XI," Huq said.

A second charity match is likely to be held in March in either Sri Lanka or India, Huq said.

Chief selectors from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka met in the capital Bangladesh Dhaka to choose the team, while Pakistan was consulted by telephone. But many crowd-attracting star players were unavailable because of injuries or participation in ongoing international series, Huq said.

The Asian side will meet a team fielded by the International Cricket Council, which will be coached by former Australia captain Stephen Waugh and will include players from Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies and England.

Huq said there was a move to make the match an official one-day international, so that individual scores and records could stand.

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