ICC unveil AIDS awareness initiative

Ehsan Mani announces the new ICC initiative

The ICC has become the first international sports body to join forces with the United Nations to raise public awareness of the AIDS epidemic - a crisis that is particularly rife in many of the countries where cricket is a popular sport. It is hoped that the partnership between the ICC and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will be incorporated by the individual national cricket boards.

Speaking on the occasion, Ehsan Mani, the ICC president, made it clear that this was, in many ways, far more important than topics like the latest developments between the ICC and the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) or umpiring consistency or resumption of India-Pakistan cricketing relations - some of which ICC's Cricket Committee - Management (CC-M) will discuss on Friday.

"The threat of HIV/AIDS in many of the communities in which cricket is played is acute," said Mani, following a joint announcement with Mahesh Mahalingam, communications adviser in UNAIDS Geneva, and Jagmohan Dalmiya, the president of the BCCI. "I hope that through this partnership the ICC is able to play its part in helping UNAIDS turn the HIV/AIDS epidemic around."

Termed Run-Out AIDS, the program has identified three specific areas: to use cricket to raise awareness about AIDS in the cricket-playing world, to incorporate AIDS education material in ICC's own development program, which is spread over 89 countries, and to work with the national boards to support issues arising out of AIDS.

Mani also announced that the BCCI - the first cricket board to take up this challenge - will work with UNAIDS in a wide range of awareness-raising activities. On October 8, an HIV-positive person will be invited to toss the coin before the start of the first Test against New Zealand, while information materials on AIDS will be distributed to sports commentators and journalists. Among other initiatives was an online auction of a set of 14 bats, with each bat being signed by every member of one of the 14 teams which participated in the 2003 World Cup. The proceeds would be distributed to various AIDS projects in India.

"Cricket is played in some of the countries hardest-hit by the AIDS epidemic. By working with the ICC and its member national cricket boards around the world, we hope to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and inform young people how to protect themselves from HIV," said Dr Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS. Putting the matter in perspective, Mahalingam said: "In the time it takes a fast bowler to complete an over, eight people in the world get infected with HIV."

Of the estimated 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, over 12 million live in cricket-playing countries. In India and South Africa alone, over 9 million people have contracted the disease. Despite the current low HIV prevalence in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, the potential for HIV to spread is high if prevention efforts are not scaled up rapidly. In Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, current trends indicate a rise in sexually transmitted infections and unsafe sex, increasing the risk of HIV. In the West Indies, HIV is spreading rapidly.