The Bangladesh world cup cricket team had a net practice at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Friday with twenty boys and girls from various city schools, two of whom were hearing and speech impaired, under a joint initiative of the International Cricket Council and the UNICEF, to propagate the message of gender equality.

The Bangladesh team is now in Kolkata to play against the Netherland in the ongoing world cup competition.

Under an initiative of International Cricket Council and UNICEF, the Bangladesh players played and interacted with the students who play cricket and are fans of Bangladeshi cricketers like Shakib-Al Hasan, Litton Das, Mahmudullah Riyad and Mustafizur Rahman who were also seen giving tips to the children on how to bowl, bat and field.

“I’m too glad to meet Litton Das whom we have seen playing in the Kolkata Knight Riders team in the IPL. In addition to important tips, we shook hands with him and took pictures. It’s like a dream come true to play with these international level cricketers,” said Krrish Manick, one of the students.

ICC and UNICEF’s ‘Cricket4good’ initiative brought the players to advocate messages to #BeAChampion through equality between girls and boys and on life skills, to help them become confident, work together and pursue an equal world.

Echoing this thought, Sneha Mondal said after the brief practice session, “It felt good to have played with boys. I felt on par with the boys to play with the international cricketers.”

Apart from the thrill of playing with the star Bangladesh players, another girl Tanisha Paswan said the interaction helped them to understand how to overcome challenges in life like the ones that always happen on the ground.

“Good communication among the team members in any field matters a lot. We have to go hand-in-hand with others as a team and bring victory,” said Tanisha who plays cricket.

Shuvam Rajwar, a speech and hearing-impaired boy, said with the help of an interpreter, that the practice session with the Bangladeshi cricketers was useful to learn how to play in a team during a match. “I learnt to negotiate and take decisions with my team members,” he said.