26th May 2007 marks another remarkable milestone in the history of Leicester. The local Imams and Clergy will join sports skills to challenge their counterparts in Bradford at the prestigious Leicestershire Country Cricket Grounds, Grace Road at 2 pm. The Federation of Muslim Organisations (FMO) and the St. Philip’s Centre (SPC), along with their Sports committee planned this event as a step towards joint commitment to community cohesion and harmonious living. “We believe Sport is a good and popular vehicle to build strong communities. It can bring people from all walks of life together.” The coordinators of the match, Suleman Nagdi MBE said “Leicester has developed Interfaith Sports as means to create better understanding and respect for each other, our city’s good practice has taken its message to Europe and further afield. While we pride ourselves on this good practice, we cannot be complacent about fostering stronger bonds between communities.” Dr. Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi, said “It is definitely an honour for the city of Leicester to welcome a sister city in the North of England and demonstrate to each other their strengths, commitment in community relations, and create avenues of how people can be brought together.” Interfaith Sports has been united as a network and will be launching as Midland Mainline Interfaith Association (MMIA). The scheme plans to bring neighbouring cities and counties together following the Midland Mainline. From Sheffield all the way down to St. Albans people will be encouraged to come and join this successful scheme, in turn supporting the organisations aims. Interfaith Sports are inviting the people of Leicestershire to come in great numbers to witness this unique match and take the event as an opportunity to make new friends. The gates will be open from 9.00 am. Twelve teams of young people from Bradford, Bedford and Leicester will be playing cricket as a precursor to the Joint Imams Clergy Match. All donations and contributions will go to the Clean Drinking Water project for the people of Mozambique. The entrance to the Grounds is Free by courtesy of the Leicestershire Country Cricket Club, a partner in this unique event.