Cricket reaches a new high

THE highest cricket match in the world took place this week - 6000m above sea level.

THE highest cricket match in the world took place this week - 6000m above sea level.

The game was played near the Everest base camp in the Himalayas between two teams named after the first men to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain.

Team Hillary, named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who scaled the mountain in 1953 with Tenzing Norgay, won the Twenty20 match by 36 runs.

Team Tenzing were led by Haydn Main, 29, a lawyer from London. Both sides brought 15 players for the Twenty20 game, and medics and groundsmen, all of whom made the nine-day trek to reach the pitch.

Team Hillary were skippered by New Zealander Glen Lowis.

Both sides celebrated with a giant bottle of champagne and several cups of tea.

The game raised more than £250000 (R3.2-million) for Lord's Taverners and the Himalayan Trust, UK.

The match was played on an (almost) billiard table playing surface with the help of a roll-up synthetic pitch. - ©The Times, London