An intrepid group of cricketers will set off on the tour of a lifetime – culminating in a match halfway up Mount Everest.

The expedition to take the game of cricket to new heights is being led by self-confessed Cheltenham cricket nut Richard Kirtley-Wright, who left for Nepal yesterday to make final preparations for a nine-day trek to the 17,000ft-high Gorak Shep plateau.

Mr Kirtley-Wright, a 28-year-old marketing manager, dreamt up the idea for the Twenty20 match during a 2006 trip to the Himalayas when he realised the plateau resembles London's Oval cricket ground.

He said: "When I saw Gorak Shep for the first time, I just knew it was destined to become the world's highest cricket pitch.

"Having a full Twenty20 match there is a quint- essentially British thing to do.

"I'm quite proud of our history of doing odd things and I'm delighted by the response of my fellow players.

"They are quite simply ordinary people, who are taking that extra step and achieving something extraordinary."

The match, which will be beamed live to Lord's cricket ground, will be played according to full England and Wales Cricket Board rules to ensure it makes it into the Guinness Book of Records as the highest game ever.

The two teams are named Hillary and Tenzing after the first men to conquer the world's highest mountain in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.

However, most of the travelling party of 50, which also includes reserves, medics and groundsmen, have no climbing experience.

They have had to undergo a strenuous fitness regime, before they leave from London on April 9, and recently converted Trafalgar Square into a cricket pitch for a warm-up match.

Cheltenham Cricket Club captain Will Simmons, who is also taking part, said the cricketeers were trying to make sure they are as fit as can be.

He said: "Our training schedule has included the Bath Half Marathon and also the Three Peaks Challenge.

"But it is very much a case of the unknown. Climbers who go up there do not run around so we don't know what to expect.

"But it will be a fantastic event and one that everyone is really looking forward to."

The climbers, who have funded the trip themselves, hope to raise £250,000 for the Lord's Taverners, which helps disabled and disadvantaged young people play sport, and the Himalayan Trust UK, a charity set-up by Sir Edmund to support Sherpas who helped him scale Everest.