Cricket, Children and Code of Conduct

By

Sheuli Akter

For dozens of disadvantaged boys and girls undoubtedly the moments were memorable because for the first time in life they saw the national cricket team players’ practice session, sitting on the sidelines. The moments will last long in their memories as they had the opportunity to talk to their heroes.

As part of raising awareness, the interaction between the Under-19 Cricket Team of Bangladesh and a group of disadvantaged boys and girls from Dhaka was arranged on Monday.

The Under-19 Bangladesh Cricket Team, which already moved into the semi-final of the International Cricket Council (ICC) U19 Cricket World Cup-2016, also had a wonderful time with the boys and girls.

The interaction with the children, followed by a practice session with the cricketers, was organized as part of the ICC Cricket for Good partnership with UNICEF, in collaboration with the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB).

Officials say the interaction focused on ‘code of conduct’ not only in cricket, but in our day-to-day lives to encourage positive and respectful behaviour.

“We are thankful to the ICC as well as the BCB for providing children with this opportunity. Such support and commitment from one of the world’s most popular sports encourages us to do more for the lives and future of children in Bangladesh,” said UNICEF Bangladesh Representative, Edouard Beigbeder.

“I am very hopeful that the training programme with the Bangladesh team that is participating in the ongoing ICC U19 CWC 2016 and the code of conduct session in which they have interacted with the players, will inspire the youngsters to pursue all that is good about the game and its values including hard work, dedication, perseverance and discipline,” said BCB CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury.

During October 2015, the ICC and UNICEF announced a five-year partnership to advocate on behalf of the world’s most disadvantaged children. Every year 5.9 million children die before their fifth birthday from mostly preventable causes; over half a billion children live in extreme poverty; and 59 million primary school-aged children do not go to school.

The ICC Cricket for Good and UNICEF partnership aims to raise awareness of these challenges and encourage cricket fans to speak out for the children whose lives are these statistics. As a part of this partnership the special cricket coaching session was arranged.

Sheuli Akter

Sheuli Akter, from Bangladesh, is a Special Correspondent and Editor of NsNewsWire, (Bangladesh’s First Press Newswire). Previously she had worked for Bangladesh’ top news agency, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) and top newspaper (now defunct) The Bangladesh Observer. She also gained an honourable mention in the first ever World Media Summit WMS Awards for ‘Exemplary News Professionals in Developing Countries’, receiving the award in Beijing in January 2015.