Proteas in pink raise over half a million for cancer

The Castle Lager Proteas, fans and sponsors knocked cancer for a six by raising R600 000 for PinkDrive at the recent Pink Day Momentum One-Day International held at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium on Sunday January 18.

Thanks too must go the visiting West Indies team for their full support in making the third ODI a pink day.

The match will go down in the annals of cricket history as one of the most electrifying as local hero AB de Villiers broke the world record with a phenomenal fastest century in a one-day international, with 100 off 31 balls and the most 6’s in an ODI (16). Pink is obviously a good colour for the Castle Lager Proteas as they have never lost in pink.

A big thanks must go to Protea sponsors Castle Lager who backed up their support of the team with sizable donations for every run, four and six.

Castle donated R163,100 through the efforts of the team. De Villiers’ contribution alone added up to R112 900 with his 149 runs, nine 4’s, sixteen 6’s, two of which went into the Momentum Family Area at R10 000 a pop from Momentum.

One-day cricket sponsors Momentum also added to the donations with R34 000 from big hits to the boundary, on to billboards and 6’s into the Momentum Family Area. Bidvest also came on board with a sizeable R49 000 for every ball touching the boundary ropes.

But it was also the fans in the stadium and around the country that showed their massive support for breast cancer awareness and Pink Day with donations of over R200,000 from close to 11,000 sms’ sent (R20 per sms) and R48 000 collected from donations and memorabilia sales at the stadium on the day.

With a grand total of R544 920 raised on match day, Momentum generously topped up the difference to take the amount up to the final total of R600,000 to make this the most successful Pink Day ever.

In conclusion AB de Villiers said, “It was an absolute privilege for the Proteas to be part of the most successful Pink Day to date.

“I’ve said before that this is a day on the cricket calendar that we all look forward to participating in and this year’s day was special for many reasons.

“Special credit has to go to CSA, Momentum, Bidvest, South African Breweries and the supporters for making it another memorable day, along with their generous contributions towards breast cancer awareness and PinkDrive.

“Our performances in pink seem to get better by the year so we definitely can’t wait to see what next year’s day will bring.”