Yorkshire cricketers to raise money for charity - by playing football! (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Yorkshire cricketers to raise money for charity - by playing football!

6:26pm Friday 2nd December 2011 in Yorkshire By Graham Hardcastle

Anthony McGrath is helping to organise a charity football match to be held in Bradford later this month in aid of Marie Curie Cancer and Brain Tumour Research.

McGrath and a number of his Yorkshire team-mates will make up a Celebrity-Legends XI, also including former Bradford City stars Dean Windass and Wayne Jacobs, who will play against Fields AFC on Sunday, December 18 at Field Sports and Social Club.

Joining McGrath will be White Rose colleagues Andrew Gale, Ryan Sidebottom, Rich Pyrah, Gerard Brophy and Oliver Hannon-Dalby, while England all-rounder Tim Bresnan has also agreed to play as long as he has recovered sufficiently from elbow surgery.

McGrath got involved through a friend, Trevor Parr, who has had two family members affected by cancer and a brain tumour.

And the former Yorkshire captain, who regularly plays five-a-side football during the winter, has been charged with bringing together the majority of the Celebrity XI.

“A lot of the lads at Yorkshire really enjoy playing football,” said the batsman, who will hope to turn into a potent striker alongside Windass or former Huddersfield Town frontman Andy Booth.

“Since Simon Grayson has been at Leeds, we’ve been down to their training ground and played a bit during the last few winters. There is an obvious link with Paul (Grayson’s brother) at Essex.

“We also play it almost every morning before a day’s play to get warmed up.

“I guess it’s the case when most sportsmen or women get the chance to play another sport, they’re keen as mustard to do it. Hopefully we’ll have some fun and raise a lot of money for two good causes doing it.”

Yorkshire have a couple of impressive footballers on their staff – Jonny Bairstow was in the Leeds Academy as a youngster and Adam Lyth had trials with Premier League leaders Manchester City.

But McGrath refuses to single out a team-mate to look out for.

“Now you’re asking me a difficult question,” he laughed. “I’ll get a load of stick from the lads if I pick one out. Galey’s pretty good and Ryan’s a decent defender.”

Other legends-celebrities involved include Neil Redfearn, Barry Gallagher, Mark Ellis, Mark Bower, Roger Eli, Liam Robinson and actors Chris Fountain and Sony Flood (Hollyoaks).

Kick-off is 2pm and admission is free.