ICC, Unicef launch Team Swachh clinics in Mumbai

The clinics are being held alongside the ICC World T20 Host City Tour to build a social movement for sanitation and toilet use in India to rid the country of open defecation.

Venkatesh Prasad and Jhulan Goswami with children during the launch of Team Swachh clinics.

Building up to the World T20 tournament, the ICC and UNICEF in partnership with the BCCI launched Team Swachh clinics at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.

The 27-day World T20 tournament begins in Nagpur on March 8 and will be played at eight venues across India with Eden Gardens in Kolkata scheduled to host the final on April 3.

The clinics, which are a collaboration between the ICC and UNICEF, are being held alongside the ICC World T20 Host City Tour to build a social movement for sanitation and toilet use in India to rid the country of open defecation.

The World T20 men’s and women’s trophies travelled through the streets of Mumbai. Exhilarated fans got the opportunity to photograph themselves with the trophies.

A specially designed double-decker bus carried children from local NGOs along with former Indian cricketers Sameer Dighe and Diana Edulji. The former players interacted with fans as the convoy made its way through the streets and photographed themselves with the trophies.

Playing cricket-based games with the children along with advocating the use of toilets, Sameer and Diana shared cricketing tips and discussed the importance of hygiene and sanitation in the specially designed Team Swachh Wash clinic set up inside the Wankhede Stadium.

Calling the initiative a social movement for sanitation, Caroline Den Dulk, chief of communications, 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.”

The World T20 host city tour event visited each of the venues in Dharamsala, Mohali, Delhi, Kolkata, Nagpur, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai that will host the tournament matches where former and current players greeted the home crowd.

The players were Rishi Dhawan in Dharamshala, Gurtheerath Singh in Mohali, Yuvraj Singh and Pawan Negi in Delhi, Umesh Yadav in Nagpur, Manoj Tiwary and Mythali in Kolkata, Dinesh Karthik in Chennai, Venkatesh Prasad and Jhulan Goswami in Bengaluru, and Sameer Dighe and Diana Edulgi in Mumbai.