About Condom Cricket
The Wake Up Pune team in February 2008 were brainstorming for activities to engage young people with HIV and condom use. ‘Everybody in India loves cricket. So, why not something to do with cricket?’
The first version of Condom Cricket was unveiled at the International Institute of Information Technology fest.
The concept was developed further to include the popular 20/20 format. The condom cricket basics remained. YOU and ME at the crease protecting the HEALTH wicket from the HIV bowlers with the CONDOM bat. Every team has maximum five bowlers, and the rest of the fielding side wears vests with opportunistic infections on them: Pneumonia, diarrhoea, herpes, skin infections, tuberculosis (this would be the wicket keeper as the leading opportunistic infection in context of HIV) and more! So now, YOU and ME protect their HEALTH wicket with the CONDOM bat from the HIV bowlers and they can ‘get out’ if they are caught behind by TB, or by PNEUMONIA in the slips, or run out by HERPES fielding at extra cover.
Through out the tournament, DISHA team members are on hand before every game to explain the concept to the teams. This way we provide the players not only with the information that you can protect yourself from HIV with a condom (other prevention methods will be discussed), but we also talk about opportunistic infections and HIV, and have a platform to discuss how HIV works by breaking down the immune system, and thereby demystifying not only how one contracts HIV but also about how HIV works in our body.