ICC Cricket World Cup begins on a positive note…

Hello all,
    The International Cricket Council World Cup 2007, the biggest cricketing event, kicked off in Jamaica a few days back. What was so special about it that a peace blog is talking about it? Well, they went a few steps ahead for humanitarian causes!


[Team India enters the Trelawny Multi Purpose stadium in Jamaica during the ICC World Cup Opening Ceremony, with a young boy wearing the AIDS Campaign T-Shirt]

    ICC had tied up with UNICEF to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS through the world’s largest cricketing event, watched from over 5 continents!

QUOTE FROM UNICEF :
While the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 will see the world’s top 16 teams
do battle on the field, off the field they will be as one in supporting
the Unite for Children. Unite against AIDS campaign.

    A truly worthwile cause! Since this programme is watched by more that 2.9 billion viewers worldwide, awareness through it is a worthwile idea.

The ICC Cricket World Cup partnership will help awaken the world to the
fact that “AIDS is robbing tens of millions of children of childhood
itself,” said UNICEF’s Representative in Jamaica, Bertrand Bainvel. Mr.
Bainvel spoke at a Kingston news conference held last week in the
run-up to the matches.

“Children have been the missing face of the AIDS pandemic,” said UNICEF
Executive Director Ann M. Veneman. “The International Cricket Council
will be a powerful ally in ensuring that children are at the heart of
the global response to the epidemic.”

    The UNICEF website reports that to mark the occasion, they will be re-launching the “Unite for Children. Unite against Aids” website with a special section featuring video profiles of cricketers talking about the impact of AIDS on children.

    During the tournament, special broadcast messages, like these, will be shown on TV. These messages were done by the Top 28 cricketers of the world including Indian Captain, Rahul Dravid, and Austrlian Captain, Ricky Pointing.

    Players and officials from each team will wear the red and blue campaign ribbon during their first games and during the final. Players will also visit UNICEF-funded programmes in the Caribbean supporting children and young people affected by HIV.

    With support from the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS – a coalition of over 50 broadcasters in 23 Caribbean countries and territories – is also launching the region’s first media-led, multi-platform campaign on HIV/AIDS, known as LIVE UP!

    Thus, the much awaited ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 has paved the way for an extensive global campaign on HIV/AIDS, which, no doubt, will prove effective, since citizens of countries like India hero-worship their cricketers (I, being an Indian youth, should know :D ). Cheerios to ICC!

Article written by Neo Garfield with inputs from UNICEF.


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March 16, 2007 | Filed Under Action Alert, General World | Leave a Comment 

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