ICC Cricket for Good & UNICEF launch Team Swachh clinics in partnership with BCCI

Building up to the ICC World T20 in India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket for Good and UNICEF in partnership with BCCI launched the Team Swachh clinics during the ICC WT20 Host City Tour. This is to promote a nationwide initiative that aims to build a social movement for sanitation and toilet use there by leading to an open-defecation-free India.
The ICC WT20 Men’s and Women’s trophies travelled on the Nissan Trophy Tour float through the streets of national capital New Delhi. Exhilarated fans got the opportunity to photograph themselves with the ICC WT20 Trophies.

A specially designed double-decker bus carried the children from a local NGOs and Indian cricket team players. Yuvraj Singh and Pawan Negi, the Indian cricket players interacted with fans as the cavalcade made its way to photograph themselves with the ICC Trophies.

Playing cricket-based games with the children along with advocating the use of toilets, Yuvraj Singh and Pawan Negi engaged with the children when sharing cricketing tips and discussing the importance of hygiene and sanitation in the specially designed Team Swachh WASH clinic set up inside the Feroze Shah Kotla Cricket stadium.

Calling the initiative a ‘social movement for sanitation’, Ms. Caroline Den Dulk, Chief of Communication, UNICEF India said, “The idea of team and team play is at the core of the Team Swachh initiative and it leverages the vast passion of the sport in the country to advocate toilet use and save lives of children.”

After Dharamshala, Mohali and Delhi, the ICC WT20 Host City Tour will visit each of the venues that will host the ICC WT20 matches. It now travels to Kolkata (24th Feb) followed by Nagpur (27th Feb), Chennai (1st March), Bangalore (3rd March) and Mumbai (6th March 2016).

Earlier in October 2015, the ICC Cricket For Good and UNICEF launched a five-year global partnership in New York. They decided to engage the broader cricketing community to empower children and adolescents. In particular, during the many ICC events over the next five years, they will develop and implement various community outreach programmes and initiatives in collaboration with coaches, cricketers and cricketing personalities.