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Samantha Fox, Viv Richards for Winston Davis charity

Former pin-up girl Samantha Fox will open the bowling of an unconventional team that will be led by Vivian Richards in a charity match for former West Indies bowling great Winston Davis.

Ex-Rolling Stone member Bill Wyman and other showbiz personalities are expected to join former cricketers such as Mike Gatting, Michael Holding and Mark Ramprakash for the charity match tomorrow against a select team of Northamptonshire.

Davis, a former Northants player, was paralysed from chest down when he fell from a tree while helping clear land for a new church on his native island of St. Vincent in November 1997 at the age of 39.

He spent 15 months in hospital in Florida and in England before being released in February this year. Now a tetraplegic, he lives in a two-bedroom bungalow with his wife and their seven-year-old daughter in Worcestershire.

"I am happy,'' Davis said recently. It is better than feeling sorry for myself. I see other people, and some are in a much worse state than I am,'' he said.

It is only fitting that the charity match should be held while the World Cup cricket is underway in England. Davis's 7-51 against Australia in 1983 is still a World Cup bowling record.

The match is organised by David English, a philanthropist whose team known as Bunbury XI has played for several charities. English brings together famous figures to play for the Bunburys.

Richards, a living legend of West Indies batting, will be brandishing his bat at the tiny Finedon Dolben cricket club in Northamptonshire for the first time since his retirement seven years ago.

Davis said the 25,000 pounds (40,000 dollars) that will be raised from the match will come in handy.
"When I worked as an able-bodied person, I was never overly materialistic. But money can make things a little easier,'' he said.

He will be driven to Finedon in a specially adapted car, purchased after appeals in the Guardian newspaper and Wisden cricket monthly magazine raised 35,000 pounds (56,000 dollars).

Davis became a born-again Christian eight months before his accident. "As long as I have blood in my body, god will get my praise and my time for bringing me this far ... All I can do is look up and give thanks,'' he said.

AP