The 29-year-old England wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler played a key role in England’s thrilling defeat of New Zealand at Lord’s in July. Buttler broke the stumps to run out Martin Guptill and seal a super-over win over New Zealand as England won the men’s World Cup for the first time. He has put the shirt on eBay to support two specialist heart and lung centres dealing with the coronavirus response.
The highest bid was over £65,000 on Wednesday morning. The shirt will be signed by all the players from the England World Cup squad.
I’m going to be auctioning my World Cup Final shirt to raise funds for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals charity. Last week they launched an emergency appeal to provide life saving equipment to help those affected during the Covid-19 outbreak. Link to auction in my bio. pic.twitter.com/ODN9JY4pk1
— Jos Buttler (@josbuttler) March 31, 2020
“As we all know, hospitals, doctors, nurses and the NHS are all doing quite an incredible job at the moment,” Buttler said.
“And in the weeks and months to come they are going to need our support even more.
“Last week, the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals’ charity launched an emergency appeal to provide lifesaving equipment for those two hospitals, specialising in lung and heart conditions in preparation for the COVID-19 outbreak.
The light-blue coloured full sleeves jersey, which Buttler wore during the summit clash at the Lord’s where England defeated New Zealand in dramatic fashion to lift their maiden ODI World Cup trophy, is signed by all members of the squad.
“To help with their fundraising effort I’m going to be donating this shirt, which is the shirt I wore in the World Cup final last year, signed by all the players who were members of the squad.”
Buttler also tagged a number of cricketers across the world including India skipper Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma, Australian Steve Smith and teammate Eoin Morgan, to spread the message.
In the UK, more than 25,000 people, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prince Charles, have been infected and over 1,800 deaths reported.
