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Courtney Walsh was already heading to Australia for the women's Twenty20 World Cup so he had no hesitation playing in the bushfire relief match.

Courtney Walsh's family looked on in horror from the Caribbean during the height of Australia's bushfire crisis wondering if the women's Twenty20 World Cup would still go ahead.

The fast bowling legend is an assistant coach for the West Indies women's team hoping to improve on their semi-final exit from the 2018 tournament.

As a star on three winning Test tours of Australia - his first in 1984 - Walsh was already heading Down Under again.

He had no hesitation in being part of Cricket Australia's bushfire relief charity match.

"I reached out to the CEO of Cricket West Indies (Johnny Grave) and I said I was going to be in Australia and I'd love to support in any which way I can," Walsh told AAP.

"My family was looking at it and asking me if the (World Cup) tour was still going to happen; I said 'it's not all of Australia, but a lot of Australia is going to be damaged'.

"It was devastating to see what was happening."

After initially being recruited to coach, the 57-year-old is playing in Sunday's 10-over exhibition match in Melbourne after Shane Warne's withdrawal due to commitments with the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa.

The final match of Walsh's 132-Test career was in 2001 but he did roll the arm over briefly in England last year.

"It's just great to be rubbing shoulders with so many greats again, I'm just happy to be part of it," Walsh said.